Kung Fu Panda: Unseen Eyes
by Tigreye33
Summary: First installment of the Tiger's Eye Series. Following the events of Kung Fu Panda 2, Tigress has chilling nightmares about the past she's told almost no one about. Can she find the answers she's looking for and finally get closure?
1. The Unspoken Past

**Hello, Readers! This is my first fanfiction, and take note in the future that this story has been written for the time just after the events of Kung Fu Panda 2. I do not own Kung Fu Panda; I'm just a rabid fan just like you. Please Do Not Steal. Any events in this story and stories to come that mirror the events in someone else's fanfiction are completely coincidental.**

* * *

_**Chapter One: The Unspoken Past**_

Tigress's eyes shot open. Sweating and breathing heavily, the tiger lay there, thinking about her dream. Or rather nightmare. A vision from the past.

It was early morning-not even a sign of sunlight was on the horizon. The bright moonlight shone on the floor, its cold rays illuminating the room as much as the full moon could. Everything was a ghostly white or blue tint.

Tigress sat up slowly. She remembered the cold feeling of being left alone. She remembered the feeling of a rapid heartbeat as fast as the pounding of feet one terrifying night.

"_Tigress! Hurry!" "He's coming! Take my hand! Tigress? Tigress?" "Where is she? TIGRESS?"_

Tigress took to her feet, quickly and soundlessly leaving her room and the barracks, taking no notice of the snoring of the large panda behind the door just a few feet away from hers. Soon, she was sitting with her back against the peach tree. The cool breeze flowed through her fur.

A lone peach blossom fell from the tree and drifted through the wind. It flew on the wind around the peach tree and lightly landed on Tigress's shoulder. She immediately took notice, since she felt a warm feeling as if someone had put a blanket around her. She looked at the petal and only one thought came to her. She turned to look behind the peach tree.

"Master Oogway," she whispered.

However, the old turtle wasn't there. It took Tigress a few seconds to realize the truth they had all learned just less than an hour after the event had occurred. Of course, Oogway wasn't there. He had gone to the heavens even before Tai Lung was defeated. By the time Tigress realized this, the blossom and the warmth had left her.

Tigress growled at herself and turned back to look at the dark and sleeping valley. For some reason, she imagined it as it had been twenty years ago: nearly destroyed and large clouds of smoke rising from various areas. Just the thought made a chill ride up her spine. That was the night she was orphaned. _Again_.

It was terrifying enough to be a child without her real parents. When she was at the orphanage as a very young child, there was still no one who would play with her, even though she didn't have her temper or strength at that age. What child would want play with a toddler?

What she really couldn't understand was why her parents left her on the steps of the Bao Gu Orphanage. Could it just have been that they couldn't care for her? Or wouldn't?

Soon, the first light of day-the first tinges of pink in the sky that only the most observant could see-made itself visible to Tigress. She could hear a baby's cry, faint to her, sounding for its mother to come and feed it.

It took Tigress a few moments to come to her senses. She rose and went back to her room as quickly and soundlessly as she had left. The lighting in her room was somewhat the same. Tigress lay down on her bed, her mind feeling strangely empty. She blamed fatigue and worry. She focused on clearing her mind-on purpose this time.

She had kept everything held in. Everything: her trials as Shifu's new student, her struggles in making friends, her unspoken past. There was a reason why she kept everything hidden. They were her weakness. If almost any moment during these times was made known-even to her friends-she might not be able to control herself and actually hurt someone. That was the last thing she'd want. Her returning to her title of "Monster".

The daylight hours crept closer, the tiny fragments of pink now exploding on the clouds. Early morning deliveries were being made.

Tigress sat up. There was no way she'd get any sleep at this hour. She watched as the moonlight faded into daylight. The light changed its ghostly hue to a more lively golden color. Master Oogway had once told them that sunlight always brought joy to the world as it approached at dawn. However, it brought little comfort to Tigress.

Lost in her thoughts, she stood up. Any moment now and the gong would sound.

_The distraction of training should help me_, Tigress thought. _It always has helped me. Any moment now..._

_BONNNNNGGG..._

* * *

**Confused? You'll find out what happened in Tigress's past within the next few chapters. Stay tuned!**


	2. The Prized Treasure

_**Chapter Two: The Prized Treasure**_

"Good morning, Master."

"Good morning, Students."

Anyone could tell this would be a normal day. Master Shifu gave his students his normal talk and they all headed to the training hall. The warriors arrived at their destination and waited for instruction. Shifu started walking toward the farther end of the training hall.

"The lesson this morning," he started, "will focus on teamwork."

He continued on and stopped at one pillar, tapping it with his staff. The rope attached loosed itself and a platform was lowered down toward the center of the hall. Shifu jumped onto it.

"If you get me to fall off of this platform, you will pass."

Po was confident.

"That should be a piece of cah-" he started.

At that moment, Shifu threw two shruikens and threw them at two different ropes, cutting them and making the platform rise nearly ten feet. One of the shruikens continued on and cut another rope, making many other ropes attached to weights fall toward the floor.

"Uh," Po said, a little less confident, "it should still be a piece of cake!"

Po ran forward.

"Po, watch out for-!" Crane cried.

As soon as Po had run only a few feet, Shifu pulled a rope. A huge boulder attached to the other end of that rope slammed into Po and sent him flying into a pillar.

"...that," Crane finished.

"Okay," Tigress began as Po stumbled back to the group, "each rope is connected to a trap. Be careful around them. Crane, Monkey, work on distracting Shifu. Viper, find which rope goes to which trap. Mantis, you and I will figure how to get past them."

"And me?" Po said wearily.

Tigress turned.

"Block any traps with the Jade Tortoise. Go!"

The Masters rushed forward. Po struggled to get to the Jade Bowl and accidentally pulled on one of the ropes.

"Watch out!"

A swinging blade nearly hit Tigress, who had stopped a fraction of an inch in front of it. As soon as the blade passed, she ran forward, grabbing Po and throwing him into the jade bowl.

Monkey swung upward on the seven-talon rings and threw a flying kick at Shifu. The red panda quickly evaded and threw him to the ground. Tigress helped her teammate up.

"Duck!" came a cry.

Viper pulled on a rope as everyone did as she said. Another boulder swung just above the warriors, but it swung upward and struck the underside of Shifu's platform. The old Master staggered a little, but then pulled on another rope. Arrows shot out at the Masters. Tigress, Monkey, and Viper jumped into the Jade Tortoise as Po jumped on the opposite edge. The arrows were deflected off of the risen side. Po slid back into the middle as the other three jumped back out.

Crane attempted to blow Shifu off the platform, but he crouched and the platform moved with him. Shifu pulled four ropes. A net hit Crane, the bird escaping just before it could pin him to the wall. Tigress avoided another swinging blade and slid under a jet of fire. She quickly got up and calmly walked between the arrows shot at her, unharmed. Mantis deflected the rest.

Monkey dove at Shifu again, but the red panda caught him and tossed him at a rope, one that was so fragile that it broke. Immediately, the Masters dove for the Jade Tortoise. Tigress however, stopped when she realized she was too far from it. She evaded and flipped over many of the traps that erupted from all sides of the training room. She jumped onto a boulder, then on the blunt top of a swinging blade, and then lunged at Shifu from behind. She suddenly found the staff at the side of her neck, swinging her off the platform. As she fell, she tried to avoid the traps, but one boulder hit her hard in the chest, knocking the air out of her lungs, and sending her flying into the hard wood wall. For the split second she was still conscious, she wished she had been sent through the window.

The Masters watched as Tigress slumped to the floor. Viper turned to the others.

"Okay," she tried to say calmly, "we've been through this before guys! Po, don't freak out! We just keep doing our jobs, and we'll be okay! Mantis, this time try sending the boulders into other traps instead of trying to cut the ropes! Po, stop freaking out! It isn't helping!"

Po stopped and listened.

"Get out!" Viper suddenly cried.

However, only she, Crane, and Mantis got out before a boulder hit the Jade Tortoise hard enough to flip it over.

"Great," Monkey told his friend in the dark, "we're out."

"This looks bad," Crane told the other two.

"Get going!" Viper shouted.

The three split ways, Mantis shoving a boulder into a swinging blade, immobilizing both. Viper kept searching for that one rope she found last time, so many months before. Crane deflected several arrows into their source, keeping them from shooting for the rest of the trial.

Then things turned for the worse. Out of nowhere, Mantis was hit with a sticky goo and flew backward. He hit Crane and they landed on the Jade Tortoise, unable to move. Viper continually moved, but she couldn't avoid everything. Shifu threw his staff at her, startling her enough to not notice the boulder coming her way. She was struck and hit the wall, falling directly onto Tigress, dazed.

Shifu pulled the rope above him and the traps stopped. Water was released onto Crane and Mantis, disabling the goo and releasing them. They lifted the Jade Tortoise and the four of them flipped it back over. Tigress regained consciousness when Viper landed on her, both girls carefully getting up. Tigress took a few deep breaths as the others approached her.

Shifu walked up behind his students and they turned their attention to him.

"Loss is the best humility lesson," Shifu told his students. "You lasted longer this time."

"I'd probably last longer if I had a bite to eat," Po blurted out.

Monkey and Mantis could hardly keep from laughing. Everyone else just smirked.

"You are excused for breakfast," Shifu told them.

The students left the Training Hall, but Viper turned back to Tigress, who hadn't stood up yet.

"Tigress?"

"Go on," Tigress told her concerned friend. "I'll come in a little bit."

Viper hesitated, but then caught up with the others.

After a few moments of silence, Shifu spoke up.

"This is the fifth time in five straight lessons when you have been the first to be defeated," he told her. "What troubles you?"

Tigress carefully stood up.

"I've been having troubling nightmares about when I was orphaned."

"You do know they weren't your real parents, don't you?"

"Yes."

They walked toward the barracks. The scenery was bright with the morning sunlight and the peach tree showed its many blossoms in the distance. The air was sweet with the aroma of blooming spring flowers.

"I just don't understand why I'm having nightmares about it now," Tigress told Shifu. "I thought I stopped having this kind of nightmares when I was a child."

"I would suggest you meditate on this to find your answer," Shifu told her. "There may be something else of importance that you overlooked."

"Yes, Master."

* * *

Inside the barracks kitchen, the others were already eating. Tigress and Shifu walked in just as Mantis threw a dumpling into Po's already stuffed mouth from across the room.

"Come on!" Po almost inaudibly said, slobber dripping off his chin. "I think I can get like three more in!"

Everyone got silent except for a few bouts of quiet laughter as Po tried to chew and swallow.

"A few days ago, I forgot to mention something to the lot of you," Shifu told his students. "The Jade Relic of Gongmen City will be staying here temporarily for better protection."

Po had just been trying to swallow the last dumpling and started choking on it upon hearing the news. Tigress walked over to him and hit him hard once between the shoulder blades, making the dumpling shoot out of his throat and directly over Shifu, the red panda not flinching in the slightest.

"The... the Jade Relic of... Gongmen City?" Po breathed. "The one Master Thundering Rhino made from the jade, sapphires, rubies, and gold he fought the Countless Elephant Warriors of Doom Crater for?"

"Yes," Shifu said flatly, "the same."

The quiet laughter returned.

Shifu continued. "I would have told you as soon as I heard, but a certain few of you were busy with _other things_."

Po laughed uncomfortably when Tigress and Mantis glared at him.

"When will it arrive, Master?" Crane asked.

"By tomorrow evening," Shifu responded. "But be aware. Many groups of skilled thieves have had their eyes on this relic ever since it was made. Already, it has been stolen and recovered five times."

* * *

**Stay tuned! The bigger action is to come!**

**Did you catch the reference to Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters?**


	3. Broken Memories

_Chapter Three: Broken Memories_

Shifu didn't stay very long during breakfast and left to meditate. When breakfast was over, the six Masters walked out of the barracks and toward the courtyard of the training hall. During the walk, Viper noticed that Tigress had remained silent ever since the training session.

"Tigress?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

Tigress didn't answer for a few seconds.

"It's complicated," she finally told Viper in a low voice.

Viper nodded and dropped the subject.

* * *

The Masters got to the courtyard and started training. Monkey picked up and tossed two heavy discs at Crane. The bird promptly sliced the two in half and hit the four pieces at the others. Soon, pieces of the discs were flying about. Usually, if one got distracted, they'd get caught off-guard by a large chunk of rock.

"Po," Viper started, swiping away at two pieces, "how's your dad?"

"He's been doing okay," Po replied, hitting a chunk of rock incorrectly and reducing it to dust. "Business seems to be getting a lot better lately, especially after we took out Shen."

For some reason, just the talk of family started to make Tigress get on edge. She struck sharply and tried to pay less attention to the conversation.

"How's Zhuren, Crane?" Mantis asked.

"He still won't answer my letters," Crane replied.

"Who's Zhuren?" Po asked.

"He's my brother."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot."

"The only letters I got back from him were written by Anjing."

"Who's Anjing again?"

"My sister-in-law."

"We really need to remember to tell Po more about our families so he won't forget names," Viper hissed at the others.

Tigress's agitation seemed to grow without her wanting it to. As fan-boy as Po was, he made the mistake.

"Tigress," he started, "are you alright? Tigress?"

Tigress couldn't stop herself. In her fury, she deflected all of the pieces of rock in the blink of an eye. The others could only guard themselves.

"I don't want to talk about it!" she shouted.

She stood there in silence because of her outburst.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I... don't know what came over me."

After a few short moments, she turned from the courtyard and left. Po tried to go after her, but Viper stopped him and shook her head.

* * *

Tigress sat in the peach tree and thought back on what had happened. She looked at the sky and was shocked to see that it had a rosy-orange hue, indicating that evening was approaching. She wondered why she didn't feel hungry, since she had missed lunch several hours previously. Had she fallen asleep?

"Have you done what I told you?" interrupted her thoughts.

Tigress looked down and saw that Shifu was meditating about a foot from the cliff. He wasn't even looking at her.

"I've tried," the tiger responded, "but it doesn't seem to be working."

She climbed down and stood between the roots of the tree. Shifu stood up and turned.

"Mysteries like this don't take only a few hours to solve," he told her.

"I understand."

"Keep meditating on this until you find at least a clue."

"Yes, Master."

Tigress thought for a moment.

"I need to go apologize to the others," she said softly. "Thank you, Master."

Shifu nodded and turned to look back at the Valley.

* * *

"So random outbursts like this have been happening ever since you met her?"

Po, Viper, Crane, Mantis, and Monkey were in the kitchen, where the panda was preparing dinner.

"Yeah," Viper answered Po.

"And that's saying something," Monkey said. "Viper's known Tigress ever since they were teenagers."

"I was worried the first few times Tigress got upset like this," Crane told them. "But then I found out that it was just part of Tigress's nature."

"I thought you'd know this by now," Mantis told Po, "since you're such a great fan of ours."

"No," Po answered. "I just always thought you guys were... you know... flawless and serious."

The four warriors looked at him for about a second and then started cracking up.

"Imagine your surprise!" Monkey crowed.

They all stopped laughing when they noticed Tigress walk up to the doorway. Po almost dropped the soup ladle.

"Hi, Tigress," Po said quietly.

"I want to apologize for earlier," Tigress told them.

"Oh, it's okay," Po gabbed, "I mean, you don't have to apologize. You alright?"

"Yeah. I'm okay."

She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Po protested. "Aren't you going to stay for dinner?"

"No. I'm not hungry."

The others were silent as their friend disappeared from view.

"At least she had breakfast," Mantis blurted out.

* * *

Just as Shifu had said, the relic arrived before evening. It arrived in the morning to be exact. Or, at least, a panicked pig that used to be accompanying the relic.

"We were attacked!" he cried upon seeing the Masters. "They attacked us on the eastern edge of the bamboo forest! They might have the relic now!"

"Who attacked you?" Po asked.

"A new group of thieves, I think! They're Least Weasels!"

Immediately, Po and the Five ran from the Jade Palace.

* * *

"The thieves! They ran into the bamboo forest!"

The scared and upset pigs stood in a group where the thievery took place. Each of them pointed at the bamboo forest when one of them spoke up.

"Is anyone hurt?" Crane asked.

"No," all of the pigs responded.

"Come on," Tigress told her friends. "Let's go!"

* * *

As they ran through the forest, Tigress kept an eye on the tracks.

"We're getting close!" she shouted.

Within the minute, they reached the thieves. They slid to a stop and gazed wide-eyed at the scene.

All of the thieves were tangled in thick vines, hovering over the ground. The relic was sitting untouched around the struggling thieves.

The Jade Relic of Gongmen City was a large, jade figure of Shen's parents. Their clothes were gold and their eyes were rubies. The "eyes" in Shen's father's tail were sapphires.

Tigress began to walk toward the relic when something shined sunlight into her eyes. She got closer to the small object on the ground and stopped. She recognized it as soon as the sunlight stopped reflecting off of it.

It was a small, golden ring. When put on one's finger, it would look like a golden tiger with red stripes was curled around the finger, holding a large, spherical red gem with all four of its paws. But the gem was missing. Tigress picked the ring up and checked it directly under the golden tiger's chin. There were two Chinese symbols etched into the ring:

識覺

"_Shijue_," Tigress breathed.

"Hey! That's mine!"

Tigress turned to look at the leader of the weasels. As soon as he saw her looking at him, he stopped struggling and suddenly got timid.

"Where did you find this?" Tigress growled.

"Wh-what does it m-matter to you?" the weasel stuttered. "I made it."

"_Where did you find this?_" Tigress demanded again.

"I told you I made it!"

"_I know you didn't make this!_"

All attention was turned to Tigress.

"What- what d'you-?"

"I _know_ who made this ring!" Tigress hissed. "Where did you get this?"

The interrogation made the weasel look and act like a frightened child. After a few seconds he spoke up.

"Okay. I'm getting arrested anyways, so... I took it from a grave."

"What grave?"

"One in the graveyard on the northeastern part of the Valley of Peace. About a mile or two east of the Dragon Warrior's village of the Valley."

Tigress turned from the thief and looked back at the ring. That graveyard was for _only_ the victims of Tai Lung's attack. If the ring was in one of the graves and the wearer never took it off, _she_ must have died that one night as well...

"Tigress?"

Tigress ignored Viper and looked back at the thief.

"This ring belongs to someone named Shijue," Tigress said in a low voice, almost inaudible to those behind her. "Shijue is my mother."

Everyone was silent.

"My father made three rings when I was four months old. One for himself, one for my mother, and one for me."

Upon saying the last three words, Tigress took a necklace from under her shirt - previously hidden from everyone else. Attached to it was a miniature version of the ring she held in her hand. But the smaller actually did have a red gem.

"What happened to the gemstone?" she growled.

The thief started whimpering.

"It-it was t-taken from m-me!" he cried. "A pl-plucky f-fox took it! Sh-she almost h-had the r-ring, too!"

Tigress was an inch from striking the weasel in her fury, but she had control. She stepped away from the thief and turned to the other five warriors. They all had worried looks on their faces.

"I'm... I'm sorry," she told them.

"It's okay," Viper told her friend. "We'll take care of things here."

Tigress nodded in understanding. She began her long walk back to the Jade Palace.


	4. The Polecats

_Chapter Four: The Polecats_

The Valley of Peace was dark under only moonlight. Small figures - just taller than the villagers themselves - shot past in the blink of an eye. Rooftops, alleyways, even through windows of abandoned buildings - the dark figures streaked past, moving toward the Jade Palace.

* * *

Everyone was silent as Po made dinner. Tigress studied the ring's every detail, trying to remember her mother. She stood up.

"There's something I need to tell everyone," she said solemnly.

Everyone looked at her.

* * *

The figures got to the bottom of the stairs and climbed upward. They got to the arena and kept going. They weren't seen by any of the palace workers, often disappearing before one could hear a _whoosh_.

* * *

"A few weeks after my father made the three rings," Tigress began, "I was left at the doorstep of the Bao Gu Orphanage. I don't know why my parents left me there, so don't ask me. When I was two years old, I was adopted by a nice tiger couple."

Po was about to comment, but he remained silent.

* * *

The figures came into the barracks, where they knew the Kung Fu Masters would be. They looked inside each room, not making a single sound. Finally, they came to the kitchen, using caution because of the one female voice that was talking. Yes, they were all there. They made their way, still silent, still unnoticed, to the cooking pot.

* * *

"When I was four, they took me to this part of the Valley of Peace for a festival. The next night happened to be the night Tai Lung attacked. My foster parents were killed, and, apparently, so was my birth mother. I was brought back to the orphanage and waited for someone to adopt me for three years until Master Shifu came."

* * *

The figures weren't listening to the story. One took a vial of a dark potion and unstopped it. Its contents were about to be poured into the soup, but the figure with the graying face held up a hand halt the other. A hand gesture, and the other figure switched the vials. An almost clear liquid was emptied into the pot instead, and they departed as silently as they came.

* * *

"Po, the soup is burning," Tigress said out of the blue.

Po immediately turned to the soup and stirred it. He added the last vegetables and dished everyone up as Tigress sat down. Quiet conversation filled the air as they all ate, but Tigress could only stomach a small amount of the soup. She was too depressed to eat the rest.

"I'm sorry, Po," she told him, standing up. "I can't eat the rest."

"No, it's okay," the panda told her, broth running down his chin.

Tigress left the kitchen and disappeared into her room.

* * *

As the other members of the Five cleaned up, Po went to catch up with Shifu.

"You knew all of this from the beginning?" he asked. "Tigress's story, everything that happened to her?"

"Maybe a little more," Shifu responded, "maybe a little less. Don't speak to her about it or... well, I'm sure you've seen what could happen."

"Yeah," Po replied.

The panda remembered what had happened only two mornings before. Then, for some reason, he felt a dull pounding in his head.

"Uh, Master?"

"Yes?"

Shifu turned to see Po have to lean against the wall and fall over. He let out an annoyed groan.

"_This_ is why you shouldn't have more than seconds, Panda," he chided.

He suddenly felt the entire room tilt.

"What?" he cried, stumbling. "What is-?"

He came to a sudden realization. He made his way to the far wall and felt his way back to the kitchen. As the seconds went by, the hall continued to distort further and further into oblivion. As soon as he was in the doorway of the kitchen, he gasped. Viper, Crane, Mantis, and Monkey were passed out on the floor.

"The soup," he said hoarsely.

He tried to get to Tigress's room, but blacked out halfway there.

* * *

Tigress sat cross-legged against the wall, still playing with her mother's ring. For curiosity's sake, she tried it on. It was a perfect fit.

_She and I must be the same size,_ she thought. _I wonder if anyone would think I was her._

She admired the ring for a few more seconds and then took it off. She wrapped it in cloth, put in in a small box, and hid it under a floorboard - just to be safe.

She stood up and walked to her bed. However, she felt dizzy and almost fell over. She stood still, but the room continued to slowly spin.

"What's going on?" she asked herself.

She cautiously stepped toward the door and opened it. She staggered into the hall.

"Master!"

She saw Shifu unconscious on the floor and tried to wake him. Then she heard something fall some distance away. She recognized it as something in the Hall of Heroes.

_Odd_, she thought. _I shouldn't normally hear anything like that from here_.

She made her way to the Hall of Heroes and found what made the sound.

At first thought, she thought the stupid weasels came back. But these darker than the weasels. They acted much more serious as well. And much more deadly. They were after the relic.

Tigress charged, but all of the figures got out of sight before she could take a third step. She slid clumsily to a stop. She suddenly received several strong kicks to her left side and was sent flying. She hit the wall and wearily got back up. There was _no way_ they'd get the relic.

Then, the entire group of weasels came her way again. They kicked her through the wall and pinned her down. She tried to get up, but soon realized it was futile.

The graying-faced figure walked up to Tigress. Deep purple eyes stared down at her.

"Poor kitty," the voice mocked. "You could have made this a little bit easier for you... and us."

Tigress's fury overwhelmed her again. She freed her arm and tried to strike, but the figure struck her shoulder, making her lose all feeling in the limb.

"Nighty-night, Kitty," the figure said.

Tigress felt something long and sharp pierce her side. She cried out, but then her vision fogged up and the world disappeared.

* * *

"Tigress! Tigress!"

Tigress forced her eyes open. Shifu, Po, and the rest of the Five were looking down on her, looking worried.

"Wha-?" she asked, her speech somewhat slurred. "I don't..."

"They must have given her another, bigger dose," Crane uttered.

Tigress tried to sit up, her vision returning. She growled at herself.

"They got away," she said quietly.

"Yes," Shifu admitted. "They got away with the relic."

"They were the Polecats," Tigress told them. "I got a good look at the leader, Tui Dong."

Everyone got more worried.

"What? The Polecats?" Po gabbed. "They're the most dangerous thieves in all of China!"

"So, how come we're not dead right now?" Mantis asked. "By all means, that soup should have been poisoned, not drugged."

"And we're complaining?" Monkey spoke.

"How will we get the relic back?" Viper piped up.

"We will figure it out in time," Shifu told his students. "Just focus on recovering." He had directed the last part at Tigress.


	5. Snooping and Surprise

_Chapter Five: Snooping and Surprise_

She crossed the Valley quickly, leaping off houses and flying through the air. She was a being of grace, landing lightly on her feet each time. The sky of the coming dusk turned her fur and clothing an even deeper red. Her eyes caught a mugging in progress. All the victim saw was his attacker suddenly grunt and fall over. He looked up at the fox on the rooftop. She blew him a kiss and leapt away.

* * *

The hours of night were approaching. Tigress sat on the steps in front of the Hall of Heroes and watched as daylight disappeared.

"It wasn't your fault."

Tigress turned to see Po standing a few feet behind her.

"I know," she told him, looking back at the Valley. "One can only do so much while drugged."

Po almost said something else, but stopped. He heard something in the building behind him. Not wanting to disturb Tigress, he quietly inched into the Hall of Heroes.

He cautiously looked around. If the Polecats had come back, he'd rather have the time to scream before they got him. He jumped when a figure crossed the Hall in the blink of an eye.

_Junjie?_ he thought. _No. He can't be here. He'd be a little smaller._

He stepped closer to where the figure vanished. Then he saw it. The figure was bent over, examining something on the ground.

"What are you doing?" he inquired, trying to spook the figure.

The figure turned and drew to its full height. Or _her_ full height.

She was a red fox, much taller than those he'd known in the past. Brilliant red fur covered her. She had brown markings around her eyes and her ears were red, turning black at the tips. Her tail was red with a white tip. Her hands and feet were skinny and black. She was wearing a heavy, red kimono-robe with orange flower designs and it was tied around the middle with a fat, black ribbon. Black silk pants were seen beneath the robe.

Shock was only seen for a second or two on her face.

"What am _I_ doing here?" she asked. "What a silly question!"

She was suddenly leaning against Po in a flirtatious kind of way.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she asked him. "Don't you have _better_ things to do than hang around a place as dreary as this thief-wrecked place?"

"Uh... well I..." Po started, falling for the look in her deep, brown eyes. For some reason, he felt like he was falling under some kind of spell...

* * *

Tigress heard a new voice coming from the Hall of Heroes. She got up and walked to the building. Cautiously, she looked inside. The voice was louder. A woman's voice. What was she saying?

She walked closer and stopped. Po was there with a _fox_. She must have been doing something to him. No, she was _flirting_ with him. Now, he just stood there with a dazed look and he started drooling.

_I hate foxes_.

* * *

The fox stood in front of Po and waved her hand in front of his eyes. No reaction.

"Perfect," she whispered to herself.

She went back to her work, but suddenly turned and ducked. Tigress landed just behind her. The fox jumped up with an enthusiasm that made Tigress even more ticked off.

"Ooooh," the fox cooed, "are you his girlfriend?"

Tigress could have slapped her.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

The fox didn't even look like she was going to fight. She walked back and forth as if she were just an innocent schoolgirl.

"I just came here to do a job," she answered politely. "You got robbed, so I came here."

Tigress growled.

"You're a thief!" she proclaimed.

"Oh, hardly," the fox replied.

Tigress charged. Again, the fox dodged as if she were smoke Tigress was trying to catch with her bare hands. Tigress punched at her, but the fox disappeared.

"Over here!" the fox shouted in a sing-song voice.

A furious Tigress bolted out the door and stopped at the top of the stairs. The growing dusk made her even more wary of her surroundings. She paid attention to sight and sound. Nothing moved, and everything was silent.

The wind blew gently. Tigress listened to it as it sounded its quiet whisper. It was the same sound in all directions - except for above. Tigress jumped up and landed on the roof, ready to fight.

The fox was sitting on the edge of the roof, clapping.

"Bravo," she taunted, standing up. "You really are a Master, like they all say."

"By 'they', do you mean us?"

The rest of the Furious Five appeared behind Tigress, ready to aid their leader. The fox looked more interested.

"Have at me!" she teased.

Again, the fox was the smoke no one could catch. She jumped over Tigress, pinned Monkey to the ground mid-attack, caught Mantis by one of his legs and threw him across the roof, barely dodged Viper's bite, and hit Crane across the beak with her sleeve, sending him backwards.

Tigress helped Crane stand up.

"What does she have in that thing? Bricks?" the bird complained, rubbing his beak. "Wait! I have an idea!"

Crane flew into the air and started blowing gusts of wind at the fox. The kimono-robe caught all of the wind blown at the fox, resulting in her having to find shelter on the ground. The Furious Five dove at her, but she dodged all of them and caught Crane's beak with two fingers.

"Mph!" the bird tried to speak.

"That was a smart move," she whispered to him.

She winked at him and threw him to the ground. She stood with her back to the Hall of Heroes.

"You guys _really_ need to do some work," she jeered at them. "I know just enough Kung Fu to live by. _You_ guys, however, are _Masters_! _I_ can actually beat _you_? Ha ha! _Eep_!"

She fell forward, unconscious. Po stood behind her, whimpering at the pain he caused himself with that punch.

"It's about time, Po!" Monkey told his friend.

Tigress staggered.

"Are you alright?" Crane asked her.

Without anything to lean on, Tigress fell over, also unconscious. Her friends looked down on her with shock spelled out on their faces. Mantis rolled her onto her side.

"You guys don't think that girl had anything to do with _this_, do you?" he asked them, holding up a small dart.


	6. The Lady Detective

_Chapter Six: The Lady Detective_

Viper quietly closed the door.

"She's just drugged," she told her waiting friends, "and might wake up soon."

"So," Po said, lowering his voice, "what do we do about the fox?"

"I can hear you!" came a sing-song voice from behind him.

The Masters turned to look at the fox. They had her tied up in a chair and had waited for her to wake up. They approached her, but she didn't even look the slightest worried.

"My name is Vixey," the fox blurted. "I am a detective from the southern end of the Valley of Peace since two years ago. In fact, I'm the best detective there is and I'm not just bragging. You can just send a letter to my boss, Macaque, and he'll confirm my claim. I came here to investigate the Polecats' latest crime, and, by the way, I learned _quite a bit_ from what they left behind."

The Masters were about to interrogate her, but they were speechless at the information that was given to them so fast they almost didn't catch it.

"What?" Vixey continued. "I have nothing to hide, so why should I hide anything from you?"

Po turned to the others.

"I don't know whether to like her or to hate her right now."

Monkey turned back to Vixey.

"If you have only enough knowledge of Kung Fu to get by," he asked her, "then how could you have defeated us until Po's surprise attack?"

"It's quite simple, actually," Vixey said matter-of-factly. "You guys _may_ be Kung Fu Masters, but I'm a detective, whose job it is to think quickly and remember as much as possible about a crime scene. I used that knowledge to remember _every bit_ of Kung Fu I've read about, including your styles of Kung Fu. Now, I can tell what the outcome of each technique will be, so I can avoid it. And those were _pretty sweet_ moves yourself."

Monkey wasn't fazed by Vixey's comment.

"You can try sweet-talking me, but you can't sweet-talk yourself out of that chair."

"I don't have to."

Before anyone could think about what she meant, Vixey stood up, took the rope off, and handed the untangled cord to a stunned Viper.

"Pretty good knot, by the way," she told the snake. "Took me nearly five minutes to untie."

"But I tied that while you were unconscious!" Viper protested.

"I know," Vixey replied.

The fox walked over to the bag the Masters had confiscated from her and took out a blank scroll. She began to write on it and finished before a minute was over.

"_This_ is all you'll need to know about what happened during the Polecat attack," she said, handing the scroll to Po. "It also has everything you did right and everything you did wrong when you kept me here."

Po opened the scroll and the other four Masters looked at it as well. The writing was small, but just large enough to read. It covered the entire length of the scroll - nearly Po's height - and had all of the information Vixey said would be on it.

Vixey stood in the doorway.

"I'd love to stay and chat," she told them when they put the scroll down, "but I have a job to do. Bye-bye!"

She turned to leave and found herself face-to-face with an angry Tigress.

"Good morning," she said before Tigress could do anything, and slipped past her.

The still-drowsy tiger's face turned to confusion as the fox disappeared.

"What just happened?"

* * *

_Knock-knock_

"Someone's at the door."

"Why don't you answer it? I'm busy."

_Knock-knock-knock_

"Answer it for crying out loud!"

"You're closer to it."

"Would you just-! Fine!"

The older of the two Beech Martens rose from her chair, dashed to the door, and opened it. Vixey stood there, trying not to laugh.

"You were faster that time, Yuan," she told her friend smugly.

The marten rolled her eyes.

"You know Jing," she said, motioning to her brother. "He just won't get off his fat tail."

"My tail isn't fat!"

"It will be when I'm through with you!"

"Ahem!"

An elderly Tibetan Macaque came into view, silencing the martens with his presence. Vixey curtsied.

"Good evening, Macaque," she told her boss. "I don't know whether I made the Masters ticked off at me or if I made them even more confused."

She set her bag down on her desk and sat down.

"Anyone seen Leopard lately?" she asked her colleagues.

"Who, the pipsqueak?" Jing joked. "Last time I heard, she was doing undercover work. _Again_."

"_I'm not a pipsqueak!_" came a cry from the other room. "And don't you _dare_ call me a mini-leopard!"

Jing jumped when he heard the leopard cat's voice. He leaned over to his sister.

"_Mini-leopard! Mini-leopard!_" they chanted in a small whisper.

Leopard ran out of her office and threw a crumpled up piece of parchment at the siblings. Macaque, however, caught the paper ball as it passed over his shoulder without even looking. The three detectives hurried back to their seats and resumed their work. Vixey tried not to laugh as she studied some scrolls.

A lynx came out of the room behind Macaque.

"Vixey!" he shouted. "I have more on the Polecats!"

Vixey leaped out of her seat and walked over to him.

"What's up, Lynx?" she inquired.

"Take a look," he told her, handing her a scroll. "The Polecats _do_ have the relic, but they seem to be interested in something else. The evidence suggests that they're going back to the Jade Palace."

Vixey studied the scroll.

"A runaway slave?" she asked. "She ran away from Huang Zu around twenty-five years ago."

"Yeah."

"Wait! This description... It describes someone else I know. Someone who never met Huang Zu in the first place!"

"Who?"

"Tigress!"

Before anyone could stop her, Vixey was out the door.


	7. Encounter Two

_Chapter Seven: Encounter Two_

Tigress was still fuming about the fight.

"I think we should just get the relic back and forget about the entire thing!"

"Here, here!" Crane chorused. The others just nodded or agreed quietly.

They were all in the kitchen, about to have dinner. This time, however, Po was sure not to let the soup out of his sight until after he served everyone up.

"I hope I never see that stupid fox again," Tigress growled.

"She did do us some good," Shifu told her. "Now we have an idea of what area that warehouse is. The sooner we find it, the sooner we will have the relic."

Tigress gave up her argument and was about to have some of her soup.

"WAIT!"

Tigress froze and looked up at Vixey, who stood in the doorway and had a panicked look on her face.

"Don't eat it!" the fox yipped.

Tigress began to growl.

"What? Is it drugged?" Po asked, a little upset at Vixey. "Because I know it isn't-!"

"They could have drugged the veggies."

Po looked as panicked as she did. Vixey ran over to Tigress.

"They might be after you next!" she said quickly.

"What makes you so sure?" Tigress demanded, glaring at her.

"Evidence and good co-workers," she said, bringing out a small vial of clear liquid. "_This_ will tell me if I'm right or wrong."

"And you're going to put that in my soup?"

"Yes, but don't worry! It isn't poison! If you still don't trust me, you can just get another bowl of soup! Now, if I'm wrong, you can just slap me upside the head and I'll shut up."

Tigress leaned over to Monkey.

"Let's hope she's wrong."

"If the soup is just fine, this won't do anything to it," Vixey said, pouring the liquid into the soup. "If it bubbles, it's poisoned."

The soup turned blue.

"And if it does that?" Tigress asked, losing her anger.

Vixey looked up at her.

"It's drugged."

Her ear twitched. Quickly, she shoved Tigress over and jumped backward. An arrow imbedded itself into the wall behind them. Everyone jumped to their feet.

"They were already here!" Mantis cried.

Within seconds, several Polecats sped into the room. Tui Dong crossed the room.

"We meet again, Kitty," she said coolly, "no thanks to _you_, Girl."

"It's my pleasure," Vixey snarled.

The two forces collided. Instantly, several Polecats were thrown against the walls behind them. Vixey was knocked backward, but she held herself up on her hands, kicked two Polecats into their comrades, and jumped back up. Tigress found herself face-to-face with Tui Dong. The graying-faced Polecat struck at her, but the tiger continued to dodge. Po belly-bumped five Polecats at the same time, Shifu grabbing one of the airborne thieves to slam down on another. Viper slashed at three Polecats, sending them in Crane's direction. The bird then jumped out of the way, the three Polecats colliding with those he was trying to fight. Monkey dove over and around the Polecats until many were running into each other trying to attack him. He jumped onto many of them (they being small in stature), causing them to collapse. He landed on a Polecat-free area and turned to face a lone thief. The Polecat didn't know there was a bug on his shoulder and tried to strike Monkey, but suddenly froze up and fell forward. Mantis jumped onto Monkey's shoulder and they went to rejoin the fighting.

Everyone had finished fighting the Polecats except for Tigress. Tui Dong continued to try to hit Tigress and tried to dodge the tiger's attack. The result was five searing cuts across her face. The Polecat stumbled backward, toward the door.

"We'll be back!" she hissed. "Come! We leave!"

She and her defeated minions departed as quickly as they appeared.

Everyone but Shifu, Tigress, and Vixey cheered.

Vixey turned to Shifu.

"Master," she said, bowing, "because of the Polecats, I request that I stay here temporarily."

"Granted."

Tigress was shocked.

"What?" she cried. "But, Master!"

Shifu turned to her.

"This is the second time the Polecats caught us off-guard," he told his student. "If it weren't for Vixey, they'd have you as well."

Tigress was about to argue, but she knew better. She threw one last glare at Vixey and left the room.

"I must apologize for her," Shifu told Vixey. "Although, it did take her some time to get used to Po. It shouldn't take as long for you."

"I completely understand, Master," Vixey said. "Serious people don't usually take a liking to happy-happy people as quickly as one would hope."

The others were picking up the mess behind the two.

"I know how to make friends with people like Tigress. Everyone has a weakness to friendship. I just have to find out what Tigress's is."


	8. Beauty Before Brawn

_Chapter Eight: Beauty Before Brawn_

Clouds were thick across the night sky, the moon's appearance unlikely to happen. The Masters approached the warehouse with caution.

"I can see Polecats everywhere," Mantis whispered. "This is it."

The Masters hid behind several large boulders. Well, all except one.

"Get down from there!" Tigress hissed.

Vixey descended to a lower rock and sat down.

"They wouldn't be able to see me anyways," she said innocently. "So what's the plan?"

Tigress let out a low growl and turned to the others.

"This will get a little tricky," she told them. "Mantis and I will be in the front and nerve-attack the guards before they notice we're here. Viper and Crane, find any traps and disable them. Monkey and Po, find the relic and take it out. Vixey, keep the Polecats from ganging up on us."

"That won't be necessary."

Tigress turned to Vixey. The fox was, again, sitting on the higher-up rock. However, she had the relic right next to her.

"We should leave soon," she whispered before getting down from the rock with the relic.

The Masters turned to look at the warehouse. Unconscious Polecats were scattered around the building.

"Go!" Tigress told the others. "Hurry! They could attack us at any moment!"

All of the Masters ran from the scene with the relic.

* * *

With the relic in its proper place, the Masters could relax. Or most of them could.

"You were supposed to wait for us!" Tigress shouted.

"And wait for the Polecats to ambush us?" Vixey shouted back. "I don't think so! Besides, they'd be expecting a group raiding the warehouse, not just one person!"

"We had a plan!"

"Sure you did."

"Well, now we have the relic back. You can leave now!"

"I'm not leaving until the Polecats lose interest in you!"

"So you _are_ trying to protect me! I don't need a bodyguard!"

Vixey let out a tiny laugh.

"I thought Kung Fu also taught humility, o guardless one," she mocked.

"Says the one who claims she is the 'best detective there is'!" Tigress retorted.

"May I remind you that I only have enough Kung Fu training to live by? I didn't have enough time to learn _all_ the lessons, Tigress!"

Tigress started growling.

"Then I should remind you that I am the leader of the Furious Five!"

"_Un_official leader!"

"The others revere me as the leader, and I expect you to do the same, or we could all get killed!"

"_Finally_, you're not thinking about yourself!"

"I hardly think about myself! I'm constantly thinking about how you could have gotten everyone killed!"

"I know what I was doing!"

"If you were a student here, Shifu could have you suspended for not waiting for an order!"

"Well, I'm _not_ a student."

"It doesn't matter!"

"Then stay off my tail, Miss Hissy-fit, and let me do my job!"

"_You_ let _me_ do _my_ job, and I won't have to shout at you after every single mission!"

"Fine. I'll just do that."

Without saying another word, Tigress stormed off, leaving Vixey just standing there.

"That went well," Vixey told herself sarcastically.


	9. Roses Amid Thorns

_Chapter Nine: Roses Amid Thorns_

"Just what does Tigress like?"

Vixey asked the same question to the other five warriors and even Shifu.

"Good luck," Crane had said.

"I dunno," Mantis had said.

"Uh, I'd clear away for a while," Po had said a little too honestly.

"How should I know?" Monkey had said.

"Peace and quiet," Viper had said.

"Maybe you should ask her," Shifu had told her.

Vixey was a little skeptical toward Shifu's answer.

"So you honestly don't know what your own daughter likes?" she asked.

"I do know what she likes," he replied, not looking up from the scrolls he was reading, "I just know you should probably ask her yourself."

"Uh, yeah," Vixey told him, "and get caught by that killer glare of hers?"

"You've never been afraid of her before."

"I've been afraid of her ever since I've heard of her. Don't you know that her ancestors would actually kill and eat my ancestors if they got hungry enough?"

Shifu gave her a slightly annoyed look.

"Just a... just a joke," Vixey told him weakly.

* * *

"Can I make friends?" Vixey mumbled to herself as she walked through the Jade Palace. "Of course I can make friends! I can make friends with perturbed adults and shy kids. I can even make friends with my enemies and then stab them in the back. But someone like Tigress? It takes a true detective to do so. It must be my toughest job yet!"

"Are you talking to yourself?" Po asked as the fox walked by.

"Yes, I am!" Vixey proclaimed. "All the great detectives talk to themselves! It's how we get things done!"

"Makes me wonder if detectives are really sane or not," Mantis whispered from atop Po's shoulder.

The two snickered as Vixey continued walking.

"Well, I could just shut up," she continued, "but that won't exactly help us make friends any faster. I _know_ Tigress has a weak spot when it comes to friends! Otherwise Po wouldn't have survived a month. Somehow, I just _know_ I have something that Tigress desperately needs. I just need to do what we detectives always do and just sniff it out."

"May I interrupt your 'detective business' and tell you to knock it off?"

Vixey whirled around. She had unknowingly walked right past Tigress.

"Oh! Hi, Tigress!" she started. "Um... do you need anything? Anything at all?"

"No," Tigress firmly replied and started to walk away.

"Wait!" Vixey cried, catching up. "Wait! I know there's something you need! A tea break? A day off?"

"A day off from _you_ would be nice."

"Ha ha! Very funny!" Vixey tried to laugh. "Funny joke! I-!"

She tripped, landing hard on the floor and something small came out of her sleeve. She picked it up and looked at it, disheartened.

"I suppose you aren't one to like jewelry, right?"

"Hm?"

Tigress turned. Immediately, her gaze turned to the small, red, round object Vixey was holding. Surprised, Vixey held it in the palm of her hand and Tigress took it, examining it with much interest.

"Where did you find this?"

"Took it off a thief," Vixey said, bewildered. "The jerk came out of the trance and made off with the rest of the ring."

She followed Tigress as the tiger went to her room.

"I wanted to get the rest of the ring back so I could return it in one piece. Do you know who it belongs to?"

Tigress kneeled, took out one of the floor boards, and retrieved a box. She opened it and unwrapped the ring.

"It belongs - or belonged - to my mother," she told Vixey, holding the ring up.

Vixey's eyes widened.

"Oh!" she yipped. "Well, you're welcome!"

Tigress put the gemstone in its proper place and then looked back up at Vixey.

"I'm sorry for being so upset with you, Vixey," she told her sincerely. "I was just upset about... well... everything."

"And I'm sorry for acting like I wasn't a part of anyone's team," Vixey apologized.

Tigress put the ring back in its hiding place. In the silence, Vixey left the room. The silence continued as Vixey passed Po and Mantis again.

"What just happened?" Mantis asked Po.

* * *

"Wait-wait-wait! Where's Paris?" Po asked.

"In France," Vixey replied, serving some dumplings up for herself.

"And where's France?" Mantis asked.

Vixey looked at the others with a perplexed look on her face.

"... Outside of China," she answered.

"You've been outside of China?" Viper asked, amazed.

"Of course! I was born in France!"

"Oh," Crane said. "That must be why you're so much taller than Master Junjie.

"Who?" Vixey asked.

"Master Junjie is an old... ahem... _friend_ of Shifu," Tigress answered.

"I just have to ask," Vixey started, "has anyone else been outside China?"

Silence was the response.

Vixey scoffed. "You guys need to get out more," she told them.

Tigress gave her a look and went back to her dinner.

"So you've lived in China for two years now?" Monkey asked.

"No," Vixey corrected. "I've lived in the Valley of Peace for two years. My family moved to China when I was one year old."

Crane looked like something was eating at him.

"So you use that kimono to fight, too?" he asked.

"Yeah," Vixey answered. "It's just my style of fighting."

"What happens when you lose it?" Viper asked. "It might be easy to lose it if it gets caught on anything sharp."

"Don't worry, guys," Vixey replied quickly, "I wear a shirt underneath, just in case! It's black and sleeveless - just right for sneaking around in really dangerous places."

She proceeded to pick up her chopsticks, but one slipped and fell off the table. She quickly grabbed it, but a clattering could be heard as several small items fell out of her sleeve.

"Not again!" she growled at herself, quickly picking the items up.

"What all do you have in that thing?" Mantis had to ask when Vixey sat back up.

"Um," the fox said after thinking for a couple seconds, "_you_ could get lost in it."

"In other words, you're a pack rat," Tigress had to say.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Vixey said modestly.

No one could help but laugh at Vixey's remark.

Although, Vixey was wondering how things were back at work...

* * *

**Okay. Enough with the fun and games...**


	10. The Downfall

**Sorry for the long wait. For waiting, I've typed up a longer chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

_Chapter 10: The Downfall_

The night sky was filled with clouds, the moon showing its face time after time. The air was somewhat chilly and there was barely a breeze to move the leaves of the darkened trees. The villages nearby were silent except for the occasional snore. Even any hidden bandits were asleep. But only one group of bandits ran under the midnight moon. And a group of four was stealthily following them.

"This way," Lynx whispered.

The other three followed silently. They crouched behind several large boulders, since those in front of them had stopped.

"They're stopping for the night," Leopard told her comrades.

The four of them quietly sat down, aware of any movements the thieves made.

"We're so close," Yuan confided to her brother. "When Tui Dong is finally gone, we'll put the Polecats out of business!"

"Too bad Sable had to miss this," Jing told her. "He'd have loved it. The highlight of his career!"

"And the highlight of _our_ careers!" Leopard hissed. "We'll finally be rid of these pesky thieves and the Valley will finally have a peaceful night!"

"Funny," Jing quietly joked, "this is the Valley of _Peace_. Isn't it supposed to be a little bit more peaceful?"

Yuan rolled her eyes. She looked over at the thieves. They seemed to be discussing something.

She sighed. "Vixey would have loved to be here, too. I guess she's having a better time making friends with Tigress, right?"

Lynx smirked. "Last time I heard," he whispered, "Tigress was an inch from slaughtering her. You think that's changed?"

"Maybe a little," Leopard told him. "A little like Vixey's poking her with a stick and Tigress is now just a teeny, tiny bit from Vixey's demise."

Yuan looked at the thieves again, but they had disappeared.

"Lynx! They're gone!"

They all leapt to their feet. Jing stood by his sister and looked at where the thieves used to be.

Just then, Yuan heard something whistling through the air and Jing suddenly jerked. She looked at him. There was an arrow buried into his back and he fell to the ground.

"Jing!" she cried. "No!"

She cradled him in her arms.

"Run," he told her weakly. "The arrow's too deep and I'm sure it's poisoned."

A tear slid down Yuan's cheek.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"They must have been onto us for a while now. Go and tell Macaque! Please, Yuan!"

She heard the other two fall to the ground and turned to look. Lynx had an arrow in his chest. Yuan was sure he had died immediately. Leopard was struggling to breathe.

She turned back to Jing. His eyes were closed and he had stopped breathing. She carefully laid him on the ground and ran.

One arrow flew past her. Then another. Tears were streaking down her cheeks.

_Vixey. I must warn Vixey!_

Yuan felt an arrow tear through her clothes and pin her to a thick tree branch. Uninjured but frightened, she frantically tore the sleeve off and tried to escape, but the Polecats had her surrounded with no exit.

"What should we do with this one?" one of the thieves asked his friends. "Slow, painful death?"

"Not the arrow," another spoke, "it's too kind. Let's teach these so called detectives a well-earned lesson!"

Yuan found an exit and started climbing the cliff wall behind her. One of the Polecats aimed an arrow at her. A sure shot.

Yuan was waiting for it. A stabbing pain in the center of her back, but it never came. She could hear something whistling through the air, but no arrow was shot into her body or the cliff beside her. She made it to the top and looked down. Half of the thieves were unconscious and the others were getting ready to shoot at her.

A volley of arrows flew through the air. Yuan knew the only way to evade this was to get low to the ground, but she was sure the Polecats already took that precaution. Suddenly, something that looked like a thick vine flew through the air, all of the arrows either getting imbedded into it or being knocked out of the air. The only arrows that continued onward missed Yuan completely.

A figure - a cat of some species - landed in front of the marten and pushed her away from the cliff. One movement, and a wall of thick vines shot upward, shielding the two.

The figure turned. It was too dark to see if she had spots, stripes, or even if she had any fur markings at all. Her clothes were ragged, as if a group of children had taken them, waving them as flags, and had been running through a briar patch. She had soft blue eyes - the only part of her that calmed the panicked marten down.

Something inside Yuan told her to run, but she just stood there. The figure pointed to her and then to the north. Yuan understood and fled. She looked back in time to see that the figure had just disappeared, leaving the attacking Polecats confused and without a trail.

* * *

Macaque woke from his meditations and rose to his feet. He knew there was something terribly wrong.

He walked around the office. It felt like a ghost town. A slight breeze from an open window rustled some papers on Jing's desk. Then he heard something in the building move. He turned toward the sound and inspected it with extreme caution.

Yuan suddenly had her arms around him, her face wet with the many tears straying from her eyes. She was hysterical.

"It was terrible!" she wept. "Dead! They're all dead! We're next!"

"What happened, Yuan?" Macaque asked her softly, trying to calm her enough to understand her better.

"We were following them," the young detective sniffed, "the Polecats. They just disappeared, and then Jing was hit. He and Lynx and Leopard were hit. He died in my arms, Macaque! My baby brother!"

"Try to gather yourself, Yuan!" Macaque chided. "You need to warn Vixey and Sable and then hide!"

Yuan stopped crying and let go of Macaque. As obedient as a teacher's pet, she hurried out the door. She had a job to do.

"Good luck, Yuan," Macaque breathed.

He heard something behind him. He didn't even turn.

"So you came for me," he told the approaching figures.

He stood in the middle of the main room calmly. The Polecats surrounded him. One of the Polecat leaders walked up to him.

"Well, well, old man," he jeered, "we thought you'd be a little harder to catch. And, by the way, you've only delayed that little snitch's death."

"Hm..." Macaque said calmly. "Were you expecting something... more?"

In that instant, Macaque nerve attacked the Polecat. He jumped up and took a board off of the ceiling. Coming down, he swung at the Polecats, taking out three-fifths of the entire force.

The remaining thieves advanced. Macaque attacked in all directions, often taking out two or three each time. The Polecats kept coming. They thought they were overpowering the old monkey, but they could never be more wrong.

Macaque landed on his feet. He was in the center of the room, surrounded by unconscious Polecats. He calmly walked to the door and opened it to leave. However, Sable was about to come in.

"Oh," Sable started. "Hi, Macaque. I was just about to... uh..."

He saw the mass of unconscious Polecats.

"Our business has been compromised, Sable," Macaque told him. "Jing, Lynx, and Leopard have all been killed, and we are all in danger."

"But what about Vixey?"

"Yuan will send her a message. We need to leave now."

* * *

_...and only I escaped alive. I went back to HQ and told Macaque and saw him get attacked as he was leaving, but he was unharmed. I saw Sable arrive just a little after the fighting ended, and he's on the run, too. I'm on my way to warn your mother, but you need to get out of there NOW!_

_Sincerely,_

_Yuan Ye_

Vixey closed the scroll. Tears would have started to fall, but she had one last thing to do before leaving.

It was just about dinnertime, so Vixey guessed Tigress would be in the barracks kitchen with the others. She hurried to her destination and stopped in the doorway. What she saw made her drop the scroll.

Po, Viper, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis were passed out on the floor.

"What's going on here?"

Vixey turned to see Tigress, who had just arrived as well. Tigress could see that Vixey's expression was full of shock and complete terror - very much unlike her. She was sure that the skin on her face would be ghostly white if she didn't have fur.

"We need to leave now," Vixey said sharply and in a low voice. "The Polecats are here, now, and they're after both of us. They've already killed three of my friends and will stop at nothing to kill me and capture you. We need to leave now!"

The fox didn't wait for Tigress to respond. She took her wrist and pulled her away.

"Vixey!" Tigress cried. "What about Shifu?"

"There's no time!" Vixey yipped. "We need to leave!"

Several arrows imbedded themselves in the wall next to the girls, barely missing them.

The two escaped the barracks and headed for the ironwood forest behind the Palace. Vixey had let go of Tigress and the two were now running faster. Tigress could see figures moving through the trees on both sides.

"Vixey!" she shouted. "They're moving faster than we are!"

Vixey let out a small growl and took off the kimono, stuffing it into a bag Tigress didn't know the fox had. Then the girls started running on all fours.

They reached the edge of the forest and stopped on the edge of a cliff. Down below was a fast-moving river and a nearby waterfall.

Tui Dong approached the girls.

"Well, hello there, kitty," she said. "Long time, no see!"

"Cut the act, thief!" Tigress spat.

Vixey started growling loudly.

"I'll have your head for what you did to my friends!" she threatened.

Tui Dong laughed. "You and what army, mutt?"

Tigress and Vixey inched closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Now," Tui Dong said, "we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

She signaled to an archer, who aimed at Tigress.

"Come with us, or we'll take you by force."

Tigress continued to glare at the Polecat.

"I'll never go with you."

Tui Dong seemed amused.

"You should have known all this time that we'd find you," she told her, "Shijue."

The last word caught Tigress off-guard.

"Wha-?" she started.

The ground beneath her and Vixey crumbled under their weight. They fell toward the water, but Tigress caught a ledge and Vixey caught her feet.

"Be careful, Tigress!" Vixey called. "They're going around!"

Tigress tried to climb up the ledge, but then she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She looked and saw that the Polecat's arrow had flown true.

"No!" Vixey cried. "Tigress!"

Tigress could feel the pain disappearing, and her strength was disappearing as well.

* * *

Shifu could sense something had happened. He rushed to the barracks and found his five unconscious students. He took a strong-smelling herb from the cabinets and waved it in front of Po's nose. The panda woke immediately.

"What? Who? Where?" Po started. "Master Shifu!"

"What happened, Po?" Shifu demanded, waking Monkey in the same manner.

Po took the small dart from his shoulder.

"... I'm not sure."

"It was the Polecats!" Monkey cried as soon as he regained consciousness. " I saw them right after they drugged Po and Viper!"

Soon, the other three were awake.

"How could they get me so easily?" Mantis asked. "I hate those guys!"

Then they heard a scream coming from beyond the ironwood forest. They recognized it as belonging to Vixey.

* * *

Vixey got her head above the water and took a deep breath. She saw Tigress feebly trying to keep her head above the water and swam to her.

"Come on!" she urged. "Stay awake!"

"I... I can't," Tigress managed to say.

Vixey caught a nearby branch, keeping her and her friend a mere two feet from the waterfall. They were just out of the Polecats' reach, and they didn't dare try to drug or kill Vixey.

Tigress felt herself dancing on the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. She saw Vixey's grip fail, and then they were pushed off the falls.

Falling, falling, falling...


	11. Truth and Effect

_Chapter 11: Truth and Effect_

"Sir, she's waking up."

"Keep her calm. If she gets too excited, her shoulder could start bleeding again."

Tigress opened her eyes. In groggy disorientation, she looked around the room. Eventually, she recognized it as a room in a clinic. What she saw next startled her.

There were three healers in the room, and they were all tigers. Two men and one woman.

"Miss?" one of the men asked Tigress. "Are you okay?"

Tigress woke up completely. She also remembered the main reason why she hated having to be treated by a healer.

She kept the bed sheet against her chest and sat up.

"Where are my clothes?" she demanded.

"Please relax, dear," the woman told her.

"I need my clothes!"

The other man walked into the hall and looked like he was talking to someone.

"Miss, you need to lie down," the first man told her.

"I'm just fine!" Tigress growled. "Get out!"

"Miss!"

"Stop calling me that!"

Before the first man could say anything else, Vixey slid into the doorway.

"You guys really do need to get out," she told the healers. "She'll just keep getting more upset."

The two healers still in the room looked like they wanted to argue their point, but conceded.

"All right," the man said, "but call us in if her shoulder begins to bleed again."

"Will do," Vixey promised. "But where _are_ her clothes?"

Receiving no answer, she closed the door behind the healers and rushed to the window, closing it, too.

"Did you bring me here?" Tigress demanded.

"No," Vixey answered, returning to her post at the door. "I woke up an hour or two ago."

Tigress lay back down.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Vixey hesitated. "We're in Cheng Guang City, in the Ju Long Province."

Tigress thought for a moment.

"If we were just floating down a river," she started, "then how did we get all the way out here?"

"Beats me."

There was a knock at the door. Vixey opened it and was given Tigress's clothes. She gave them to Tigress and turned away from her to give her some privacy.

"Tigress," she started, "there's something I need to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"I heard about what happened to your foster parents all those years ago, with Tai Lung. Is it true?"

Tigress finished dressing and put a hand on Vixey's shoulder.

"What are you trying to get at, Vixey?"

Vixey sat on the chair beside of the bed. Tigress followed suit and sat on the bed.

"To start off," Vixey began, "when I was two, I was getting into all sorts of mischief. I wandered where I wasn't supposed to go, got into things I shouldn't have. But I guess that's why that year's called the Terrible Two's. I was a complete monster, but Mom and Dad put up with me.

"There was one time that we were walking through the village square and a guy in a broken down sort of place was offering free rice pudding samples. I didn't even ask my parents. I went over and the guy gave it to me. I didn't know that he drugged it, or that he was planning on holding me for ransom.

"When I woke up, I was in a cage. I kept crying for my parents, but they all ignored me or laughed at me. I didn't know what to do.

"No more than a few hours later, someone came to my aid. He took out all of my captors and freed me. I finally saw who it was. Tai Lung rescued me. He returned me to my parents and then returned to the Jade Palace.

"Two months later, we went as a family to the village of the Valley of Peace that was closest to the Jade Palace to thank Tai Lung properly. It also happened to be the night he attacked the Valley.

"I got separated from my parents in the chaos. I didn't know where to go or who to run to. I made it to an alley and saw that a tiger woman was following me. She checked to see if I was okay. She was frantic, but also a little disappointed.

"We heard a noise, and she saw someone approaching. She kept herself between me and him and he attacked her. She fell on top of me, and the attacker didn't see me. But I saw him. That was when I saw that my hero, Tai Lung, had destroyed the Valley and was trying to hurt and even kill everyone. I was emotionally crushed by this. After that, he went back to the Jade Palace.

"My parents found me later, all three of us sobbing. We left the Valley and lived elsewhere for two decades, Tai Lung's good deeds inspiring me to become a detective."

She went silent for a few moments.

"Tigress," she said quietly, "I'm sure that the woman who gave her life to save mine was your birth mother."

Tigress breathed. "I expected she would be," she whispered.

"I'm sorry."

Tigress looked up at her friend's tear-stricken face.

"Don't be," she told her. "That was twenty years ago. It's over. Let's just focus on getting out of here."

Vixey wiped away her tears.

"Let's do this."

They both got up and walked toward the door. Vixey opened it, looked out for a fraction of a second, and closed it quickly.

"What is it?"

"The Polecats!" the fox jittered. "They're here! I should have realized! This is Huang Zu's territory, and they work for him!"

Tigress tried to think of something, but she knew getting out of there without being seen had slim chance. Her disappearance among all these tigers could be easy, but Vixey's disappearance would be a challenge.

Someone knocked on the door, making Vixey jump. She opened it slightly.

A young tiger stood there.

"I was told to give this to you," he said, holding up Vixey's bag. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding from the Polecats," Vixey whispered, quietly taking the bag.

The tiger took a quick look at the Polecats and turned back to Vixey.

"Then you need to get out of here," he told her. "If they follow you, they'll finally leave us alone." He sounded as if he had been harassed.

"Can you tell us how to get out?" Tigress asked him.

"Through the window," he answered, "but you'll have to move fast."

The girls did as the tiger suggested. However, as soon as they touched the ground, they heard a shout.

"They went out the window! Hurry!" It was the tiger's voice.

The Polecats appeared at the window, but they didn't see anything.

"Boy!" one of them called. "Where out the window?"

"I just saw them climbing down! I don't know!"

* * *

"That blabber-mouth!" Vixey growled to herself. "He just wanted us gone!"

"No, he wanted _them_ gone," Tigress corrected. "This just means we can't trust anyone here."

They peered out of their hiding place. In the short time they had been running, they had already gotten far. They were out of the more populated area and now hid around small homes, where there was barely a sight of a child playing on the streets.

"Gloomy," Vixey whispered, "don't you think?"

"I'd have preferred it to my room in the orphanage," Tigress replied.

Vixey silently agreed and they continued onward. Carefully avoiding detection by even the most observant city-dweller, the girls made it to a large garden.

"I don't like this," Tigress told her friend.

"I know," Vixey replied. "There are too few hiding places here, and in a place as nice as this, there are bound to be guards around here."

They crept close to the ground and behind any obstruction they could find. However, this didn't last long.

"You there!"

They caught sight of a guard approaching them. Tigress motioned for Vixey to stay down and then stood up.

"I'm sorry," she said, holding up a coin. "I dropped this and finally found it."

The guard seemed dubious.

"May I ask what your name is?" he asked.

Tigress didn't hesitate. In an instant, she jabbed his forehead with two fingers, causing him to take on a blank stare. After a few seconds, he came back.

"Uh," he started, "what happened?"

"A stupid kid ran off after hitting your forehead with this," she told him, holding up the same coin. "You were about to tell me how to leave this city so I can go home and tell my friends and family to visit this place more often."

In the bushes, Vixey was trying to keep from laughing.

"The only exit is on the south end of the city," the guard told Tigress, "but by the time you get there, it'll be closed for the night. I'm sure you could find an inn to stay at until tomorrow morning."

Tigress was the only tiger that heard Vixey's face-palm.

"Thank you," she said.

The guard turned to continue his patrol. Tigress returned to where Vixey was - or where Vixey used to be.

"Vixey?"

Before even a drop of panic entered her heart, Tigress felt someone grab her. Sooner than she knew, she and Vixey were sitting inside a small cottage. Dazed by the sudden change of environment, the girls leapt up, ready to fight.

An old tiger closed the door and turned to look at the girls.

"Please, sit down," he told them calmly. "I am not an enemy."

Vixey was hesitant. Tigress didn't show any sign of relenting.

"Prove it!" she growled.

The old tiger wasn't intimidated at all.

"If I am caught with you in my house, I can be immediately killed by the Polecats," he told her. "But I am merely a lowly servant of the tyrant Huang Zu with nothing to lose."

"Am I hallucinating," Vixey whispered to Tigress, "or is he telling the truth?"

Tigress looked at the old tiger. The fur on his face and hands looked scraggly, as if he had been working for decades on end. His lime-green eyes looked tired and seemed to have seen much more than he could bear. The plain, dark brown vest he wore was dirty and had many tears, not to mention the several patches its owner had already sewn on. His pants were black, but seemed a dusty brown due to the dust and dirt picked up from many years of working, and there were tears in the knees. This tiger didn't wear shoes, supposedly because he couldn't afford them, and looked as work-worn as his hands and clothing. Basically, he looked like he was mugged repeatedly over the past five hours.

Tigress lowered her guard.

"He is telling the truth," she said, sitting down.

Vixey sat down as well. The old tiger sat opposite the girls.

"You are looking for another way out, I presume?"

"Yes," Tigress said. "We need to get back to the Valley of Peace."

The old tiger looked like he had been paying more attention to her eyes. Normally, Tigress would have felt a little uncomfortable, but she felt as if she recognized him from somewhere.

"There is a weak spot in the wall," the old tiger seemed to tell Tigress specifically. "You will need to open it yourself, and open it fast. Many times have the Polecats captured runaway slaves trying to escape that way. But they haven't been monitoring that place for months now."

"Better that than the inn," Tigress said under her breath. "Where is it?"

"Follow the wall for just over six meters. There is a small opening that will allow a small amount of wind through. Find it, and I estimate you will have five minutes at the most to escape, since only two trees obscure the view from the rest of the garden."

Vixey stood up.

"Thank you, sir," she told him. "Would you... like anything in return?"

The old tiger lowered his gaze. He took out a crinkled piece of paper from his vest and gazed at the image on it with regret in his face, leaving the girls to wonder what was on it.

"Yes," he told them. "I want you to never return to this place until Huang Zu has died. His son, Jian Kang, is an honorable man, very much unlike his father. When he reigns, you will finally be safe here."

Tigress stopped.

"Finally?" she asked him. "What do you mean by that? I've never been safe here?"

The old tiger put the paper away.

"You need to leave now."

* * *

"Here!" Vixey yipped quietly, a small wind blowing through her fur.

She and Tigress pushed on the wall. The crack grew larger, but not large enough.

"Keep going," Tigress told her.

They kept pushing on it, but they soon sensed movement behind them. They looked back. The Polecats were advancing on their position.

"I'll fight them off!" Tigress told her friend. "Just get the wall open!"

"Good luck!" Vixey barked.

Tigress charged at the approaching Polecats, but stopped under the trees when a pinecone hit her snout. A new plan in mind, she stood her ground. The Polecats were almost upon her when she finally darted away. She hit one tree with a firm punch, did the same to the other, and then jumped back, watching the Polecats get pummeled by the falling pinecones.

Tigress checked on Vixey's progress.

"Another inch," Vixey shouted, panting, "and we're home free!"

Tigress turned back to the Polecats in time to avoid a strike. She kicked his chin and sent him flying. She flipped, grabbing another and slamming him down on one of his comrades. She then continued to dodge the Polecats' attacks, making several hit other Polecats.

"Almost there!" Vixey cried.

The sun was setting, making it harder for Tigress to see the Polecats, but they could still easily see her. Tigress dodged a few more attacks before feeling a dagger sink into her shoulder. She stumbled backward and pulled the dagger out. She brought her hand up to inspect the wound. She could feel a small amount of blood dripping down, but what she couldn't feel was the pain that should have accompanied such an injury.

"Drugged," she breathed, stumbling.

"That's right, kitty," Tui Dong said, suddenly appearing.

Tigress turned to check on Vixey.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. She saw the wall move a little bit more and Vixey turned. As Tigress fell to her knees, she saw Vixey's mouth move, but heard no sound. The fox seemed to look around for options. Then she ran toward Tigress.

Then everything went dark.

* * *

"Tigress?" someone's voice echoed. "I think she's waking up!"

Tigress thought she was drugged pretty heavily. For an instant, she thought that was Po talking.

"Tigress?"

What trickery was this? Shifu couldn't really be there, could he?

Tigress's vision returned. Po, Shifu, and the rest of the Furious Five were standing there, watching over her.

"What?" Tigress started, still really groggy. "Where... where am I?"

"The Jade Palace," Viper told her. "We rescued you from Cheng Guang."

Tigress sat up carefully. She had a splitting headache and her shoulder felt stiff.

"You fought the Polecats?" she asked. "Where's Vixey?"

The other five students looked at each other.

"There... were no Polecats, Tigress," Crane told her. "Vixey wasn't there either. We just found you passed out with that stab wound in your shoulder."

Tigress felt her head clear up.

"What? That's impossible!" she told them. "The Polecats were surrounding me! Vixey was coming to help me!"

"We didn't see them, Tigress," Shifu told her calmly.

Tigress tried to think about what had happened. It just didn't seem logical! Vixey and the Polecats couldn't have just disappeared like that! And if the Polecats _had_ disappeared that quickly, wouldn't they have taken their immobilized prisoner with them?

"Get out," she told them. "Please get out."

"Tigress," Monkey started.

"Get out!"

The others hesitated, but then did as she told them.

As soon as she was alone, she tried to think about what just happened. She felt cold inside. Vixey was like a sister to her. How could she have just disappeared like that?

She looked out to the horizon, which was growing pink, signaling the dawn's approach.

What had happened to Vixey, and where was she now?

* * *

**Sorry for the cliffhanger, but that's the way it has to be!**


	12. The Mystery

_Chapter 12: The Mystery_

Days had gone by without any word about Vixey or the Polecats. At first, the warriors just grew more paranoid, but the threat seemed to be gone. The hours became mundane again - except for Tigress. There was always the feeling that something was weighing her down.

On more than one occasion, Shifu let Tigress have time to meditate instead of attending a lesson with the other five students. Her fear for Vixey seemed to eat at her with an unquenchable appetite, and there was a question that never left her mind and it seemed it would never let go: What had happened?

Sometimes, Tigress would wake at night for no reason. Also for no apparent reason, the image of the old tiger would plague her memory each time. She felt like those lime-green eyes had looked down on her before - perhaps even more than once before.

However, that came to an end when her thoughts were interrupted by a frantic squawking. She stood up from the center of her bedroom floor and opened her window.

Almost immediately, a golden pheasant flew in. Never had Tigress seen one of his species before. The top of his head was a golden color and orange and black stripes - unlike those of a tiger - ran down the back of his neck. His throat was colored a bright red. Most of his wings was golden, like the top of his head. A majority of his tail was visible: it was a gray and black pepper color and was almost longer than his body. He wore a robe like Zeng's, but it was red with a golden lining and belt.

"Who sent you?" she asked.

The panicked bird took a moment to calm most of the way down.

"One of your friends," he said, handing her a scroll. "She called herself Vixey."

* * *

Tigress burst into the Training Hall.

"I got a letter from Vixey!" she shouted.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and ran to Tigress.

"What's going on?" Mantis asked. "Where is she?"

"Is she okay?" Viper asked.

Tigress quickly opened the scroll and read it aloud.

"Tigress,

"I'm in trouble, but please don't come after me. It's better if you didn't. This is why:

"When I opened the wall enough for both of us, I saw the others from the Jade Palace coming. I was about to tell you this, but I saw the Polecats had already tagged you. I came up with a plan - one that you'd think would be absolutely ridiculous to even attempt. I pretended to kill you.

"Since the Polecats wanted you alive, I decided that faking your death would keep them away from you. I took a sharp-looking rock and acted like I stabbed you. Since you were already bleeding, I got some blood on the stone. They took the bait and went after me instead.

"I escaped into the village and hid there for several days."

_She flattened herself against the wall. Terror crept into her heart. "I'm the fourth detective," she whispered to herself, "aren't I? Jing, Lynx, Leopard, and now me, right? Well, good luck with that!"_

_They checked the alley, but she wasn't there anymore._

"After a while, they found me in an abandoned building and wounded me."

_They kicked the door in and a volley of arrows came her way. She dodged all of them but-_

"_Aah!" she cried, feeling an arrow pierce a muscle on her arm._

_She removed the arrow and made herself an exit - the wall now had a fox-shaped window._

"I came to the clinic and got my injury treated."

"_Ow!" she protested. "Please, I need a messenger!"_

"_One will be here shortly," the medic told her. "Hold still."_

"But do you remember that little snitch who told on us? He struck again."

"_Address it to Tigress," she told the bird._

"_Wait! From the Jade Palace?"_

"_What other people do you know by the name of 'Tigress'?"_

_The boy saw her, and she saw him._

"_Kid! Don't try it!"_

_He ran out of sight._

"_You need to write fast! I don't have much time! Write down..."_

"I don't know how much more time I have before they find me, but please don't try to save me! It's better that I die and they don't know you live than they kill us all in one fell swoop. Please stay away!

"Your friend,

"Vixey"

"_Go!" she cried. "Go now!"_

_She saw the bird go out the window. A second later, she felt something small and sharp strike the back of her neck._

"_No!" she protested._

"_You lost, mutt!" one of them told her._

"_Actually," she told them, "you lost."_

_She fell down, not even trying to rise again._

* * *

Tigress rolled up the scroll.

"What do we do now?" Po asked.

"I think Vixey underestimates us," Monkey told the others.

Shifu stepped forward.

"We need to be wise about this," he told his students. "If we stay here, there is a chance the Polecats will not find Tigress again. But if we go rescue Vixey, we will have an even slighter chance of succeeding."

"Master," Tigress said, "I propose we rescue her."

The others were shocked.

"Tigress," Shifu began, "do you remember her warning?"

"I know what I'm doing, Master," Tigress answered. "Vixey was hard to get used to, but returning to normal is even harder to do. If we don't rescue her, I don't know if I would be able to forgive myself."

The others agreed with her.

"If we could defeat Shen and his army," Po told the others, "we can save Vixey!"

"But how do we know what to expect?"

Everyone looked at Mantis.

"What?" he asked. "I'd rather not go in there without a plan!"

"We have one," Tigress said. "Vixey left several scrolls about the Polecats in her room. I read one she dropped in the hall. I'm sure some of them talk about the Cheng Guang Palace."

The others seemed more confident.

"I'm sorry, students," Shifu told them, "but I must stay here. If the time comes that you will need my assistance, I will come."

The others looked at Tigress.

"Let's go save Vixey."


	13. Dilute and Dangerous

_Chapter 13: Dilute and Dangerous_

It was dark and cold where she slept. Of course, sleeping wasn't comfortable in a dungeon. It was never comfortable. But Vixey didn't dwell on those thoughts. She took comfort knowing Tigress wouldn't be bothered by the idiot Polecats anymore. At least, not for a while.

She shifted her position. The eight-point acupressure cuffs on her wrists were chained to the wall above her, keeping her standing. Her hands and wrists had long since become numb.

She heard footsteps outside her door. She knew what was coming. Killing anyone, even if the event was faked, was punishable by death. Oftentimes the offender wasn't even given time in a prison.

The door opened. Three tigers entered. Two were guards, and the last, standing between the two, she recognized as Huang Zu.

The tyrant had a whitening face, although his crimson-red eyes attacked Vixey like a spoiled child's glare at its defiant mother. He wore a long red robe with golden trimming and jet-black dragon designs. Actual rubies were in each of the dragons' eyes, their glares as demanding as their master's. As terrible as he was, he didn't intimidate Vixey.

He walked up to the imprisoned fox and glared into her eyes, his face very close to hers.

"Why did you do it?" he hissed.

After a while, Vixey looked up at him.

"Why else?" she lied. "I was jealous. She _always_ had more friends than me. More fame. She finally ticked me off enough by leaving me to open the wall and she went to fight your precious minions. Being killed in battle is much more honorable than being the one who ran away." It was difficult to sound sincere.

Huang Zu deepened his glare. Finally, he backed away.

"My son was interested in that girl," he told her. "That was why I sent my _minions_ after her."

"Not for... anything else?"

Huang Zu turned.

"He'll just have to find another girl," Vixey told him mockingly.

She suddenly found his hand at her throat, holding her up.

"And I was thinking about giving you the _easy_ way out," he growled.

That worried Vixey. Huang Zu let go of her and stepped back.

"Death by poisoning will set you right."

For a moment, Vixey was confused. Then she realized what was happening.

She looked up. Even in the darkness of the dungeon, she could see little droplets of liquid dripping down the chains and to the wounds caused by the cuffs. Soon, Vixey could feel herself tensing up. She knew what would come. Slowly and steadily, the poison would make its rounds through her body. A slow and painful death.

Huang Zu sneered.

"Enjoy yourself," he told her before leaving.

It felt like hours. A stabbing feeling started in her wrists and moved through her arms. Soon, it reached her shoulders. But for some reason, she couldn't feel it reaching the rest of her body. For a time, she thought maybe she had passed out.

The door opened. For a second, Vixey thought a guard had come in. Then her head cleared as she suddenly found herself kneeling. She couldn't believe who she was looking at.

"Come on. Let's go."

"Tigress?" Vixey started. "What're you... You shouldn't be here!"

"Neither should you," Tigress whispered back, holding up Vixey's bag. "Let's get out of here!"

"But I'm poisoned!"

"Not with a deadly poison."

"What?"

"Viper switched the poison with her own. Even a normal bite couldn't kill an infant."

"... Oh..."

"Come on!"

Tigress led her out of the dungeon and met the other five. By this time, Vixey's head had cleared completely and she had donned her kimono. Also by this time, guards had started to pour out of any available door.

"Hold your breath!" Vixey cried.

The fox tossed several little, white spheres in the air above them and started doing a sort of dance. When the spheres landed, the seven of them were enveloped in white smoke. It was the most peculiar sensation, since things seemed to feel like they were twisting around them. When everything returned to normal only a second or two later, they were in a different area of the palace completely. Regaining their sense of direction, the Masters fought alongside their detective friend.

After a course of several minutes, Tigress found herself separated from her friends and surrounded by an ever-increasing number of guards. She took out several dozens of guards before feeling a firm hit across the side of her face, stunning her momentarily.

When she came back, two guards held her still and Huang Zu stood in front of her.

"So you weren't killed," the tyrant said. "My son will be happy to hear the news."

Tigress understood what was going on.

"I'm not available!" she cried, throwing both guards at their master.

Tigress started fighting her way to her friends. Soon, however, someone delivered a solid punch to her gut, stunning her again. But this time, she didn't waste time. She reminded those around her why they shouldn't injure her. The guards closest to her were thrown back as if they were in an explosion. One guard tried to punch her, but she spun, evading it and using her elbow to break his arm. She continued to fight guard after guard until all came to a halt.

Tigress turned to look at Huang Zu, who had put a hand up to stop everything.

"Your struggle amuses me," the tyrant said. "Why are you resisting the prince? Normally a girl such as yourself would be honored to be wed to one of royal blood."

"I'm not a normal girl," Tigress growled. "Now leave us alone."

"Oh, dear," Huang Zu said mockingly. "I might just have to resort to something more... _convincing_."

"Tigress! Help!"

Tigress turned when she heard Vixey's call. She and the other five were chained to a cage suspended over a large pit that resembled an indoor well. They were helpless.

"So what shall it be?"


	14. Broken Warrior

_Chapter 14: Broken Warrior_

"Let them go!"

Huang Zu smiled. He had Tigress in his grasp.

"I will if you agree to marry my son," he told her.

Tigress hesitated.

"Don't do it, Tigress!" Vixey cried.

"We'll be okay!" Po called. "I hope," he added under his breath.

Tigress saw them struggling with the acupressure cuffs. She slowly turned back to Huang Zu.

"You _will_ let them go if I marry your son?" she asked.

"Yes," Huang Zu told her, "they will be freed from their confines."

Tigress felt sick. She knew there would be something else he would do, but she couldn't risk the lives of her friends.

A terrible taste filled her mouth before she spoke.

"I will marry him."

"No! Tigress!" the others cried.

Huang Zu's expression brightened. He signaled to the guards and one of them tossed some keys to the trapped Masters. One looked like he was going to bring the cage out of the pit.

"But I didn't say _where_ they would be released," Huang Zu whispered to Tigress.

Immediately, Tigress whirled around. The guard closest to the pit held the chain out while another was about to swing an ax.

"NOOO!" Tigress screamed.

She tried to run to stop the guards, but they cut the chain before she even had a chance. Several guards kept her from reaching the pit and they all heard the Masters' screams as they fell.

Tigress kept fighting, but froze when she heard a deep, resounding...

_**BOOM**_

Tigress's head surged with many thoughts. The most common were about her now dead friends.

_Viper is dead. Monkey is dead. Mantis is dead. Crane is dead. Vixey is dead. Po is dead..._

Frightened at how still Tigress had become, the guards around her backed up. Tigress turned to face Huang Zu.

A single tear fell down her cheek.

"MURDERER!" she screamed.

Her image had become terrible - a nightmare worse than anyone could have imagined.

She leapt at Huang Zu, losing all control over herself. As soon as she was an inch away from him, he moved just enough to dodge her completely. Tigress landed and rolled, taking out several guards. She struck in a flurry of attacks, striking down as many guards as were unfortunate enough to stray near her. Many of the guards didn't even see her coming.

Finally, the path was cleared to Huang Zu, and she charged him again. When she was about to reach him, the tyrant jumped over her and slammed down on her. He stood, waiting for her to rise.

Tigress stood up, aching to obliterate every inch of the tyrant within seconds. She punched at him, but he struck her shoulder, rendering her arm useless. Tigress was about to attack again, but felt a nerve-strike to her neck. She fell to the ground, unable to move.

Two guards came in from another room. Huang Zu made them hold her up so she could see him.

"You should have told me you didn't want them killed, Tigress," he told her, the sarcasm clearly evident in his voice. "I may have spared their lives."

He turned and walked away. Tigress was about to shout at him, but one of the guards pinched several nerves in her shoulder, making her lose consciousness.

* * *

The young prince looked sick.

"You... you killed them?" he said, bracing himself against the wall. "I told you I'd be just fine looking for another girl, Dad!"

"She agreed to marry you," Huang Zu told him.

"Because you bribed her!"

Huang Zu gave his son a stern look.

"I will do whatever it takes to get you what you need," he firmly stated. "But now you need to meet her."

Jian Kang laughed nervously.

"What? Is that a death sentence?" he asked. "You just killed her friends and now you want me to meet her? May I remind you that she took out half our guards with barely an effort?"

"I will make sure you won't be killed," Huang Zu reassured him. "Go, now."

* * *

Jian Kang walked down the corridor with two guards behind him.

"I need to speak with Rumi," he told the guards.

"Yes, sir," one of them answered, and broke away."

The nervous prince continued toward his destination.

"Dad's insane," he whispered to himself. "He's completely insane and turned this place into a nuthouse. Pairing me up with the only person in the world who's scarier than himself. I must have the bloodline of idiots!"

A young tiger maid approached the prince and his guard.

"You called for me, Master?" she asked.

"I told you not to call me that, Rumi."

"Sorry, M... Sorry, Jian. What did you need me for?"

"How does one deal with an angry woman?"

Rumi paused.

"What?"

"I thought it'd be better for me to get a woman's opinion rather than asking guys who have no idea."

"Are you talking about her?"

"Of course. Didn't you go in her room once or twice?"

"Yeah. I guess you heard that the guards were getting too scared of her to risk their necks so they started sending in servants."

"How did you keep her from attacking you?"

"Well, since she was raised in the Valley of Peace and had just lost several of her friends, I guessed she mourned the same way."

"With the candles?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know - and still don't know - how they do it, so I just went in with a big crate of candles. The next time I was in there, I noticed she'd taken six of the candles."

"You women and your antics..."

Rumi gave him a look.

"So why did you tell your dad you had the hots for her anyway?" she asked.

"I thought she was just one of the village girls!"

"Well, now you know not to tell him anything. Do you know who your father-in-law will be?"

Jian Kang's face turned to terror.

"I hope Tigress kills me before the wedding. Shifu would murder me for being the reason why five of his best students were killed."

"I'm sorry I spoke up."

They arrived at the door.

"She's been quiet," one of the guards told the prince.

Rumi looked at the prince with concern.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asked.

Jian Kang looked back at her and smiled nervously.

"I'll be worse off if I survive," he told her.

Rumi bowed and left. Jian Kang faced the door.

"Open the door," he ordered.

One of the guards did as he was told. Carefully, the prince entered the room and the door was closed behind him.

Jian Kang cautiously stepped through the room. It no longer looked like a finely-furnished bedroom, but rather a jungle of torn fabric and furniture apparently snapped in half. The prince was careful to avoid any splinters that could be found. Even though the room wasn't very long, it seemed like an eternity until the far edge of the room was reached.

Tigress sat looking away from the approaching tiger. She seemed to be hypnotized by the flames of six individual candles melting on the remains of a bedside table.

As soon as Jian Kang came within two feet of Tigress, the scents of the burning candles hit him as if he had run into a wall. He stumbled backward and braced himself against the wall. He blinked once, and Tigress was immediately in front of him, ready to strike. Her hand came toward his face, claws extended, but he ducked and there was suddenly a chunk taken out of the wall behind him.

"Wait! Tigress, I-!"

"I DON'T LISTEN TO MURDERERS' OFFSPRING!"

"I'm not like my father!"

Tigress continued to attack and Jian Kang continued to dodge each attack, resulting in the room taking another beating.

The prince tried to use the bed as a shield, but Tigress overturned it. Somehow, even outside his own knowledge, Jian Kang escaped it before he could be trapped.

Eventually, Tigress caught Jian Kang by the throat and held him up, ready to finish him off.

"Wait! Don't kill me yet!"

Tigress froze. Jian Kang noticed that the fur on her face looked wet from her tears.

"Yet?" she growled, sounding like rocks rolling off a mountain side.

"I'm - I'm sorry for what my dad did!" he told her.

Tigress's grip tightened.

"No apology can bring them back!" she hissed.

"I know!" Jian Kang gasped. "I'm just trying to tell you that, even before Dad killed your friends, I felt dishonored because I'm his son! I want to help you! Then you can kill me!"

Tigress released her grip but kept her stance.

"You'd better talk quickly!"

Jian Kang regained his balance.

"If you kill me," he told her, "Dad would completely lose it, since I'm his only heir. Kill me, and then kill him."

Tigress thought he was insane. No reason not to finish him off, though.

She raised her claw and the prince submissively stood there, but before she could attack, the door behind him opened and Huang Zu pulled his son out of the room.

"NO!" Tigress roared, burying her claw into the now closed door.

On the other side of the door, those within earshot could hear her savage, yet futile attempts at knocking the door down.

"That was close, son," Huang Zu stated.

"Well played, Dad," Jian Kang said under his breath. "Well played."


	15. Dishonor and Rebellion

_Chapter 15: Dishonor and Rebellion_

Hours passed as minutes. Minutes passed as seconds.

_Why didn't I listen to Vixey? Now, not only is she dead, but so are Po, Viper, Crane, Mantis, and Monkey..._

Tigress watched the flames on the candles for hours on end. She knew what she had become. A monster in a cage with no way out. She struggled to hold on to her former self, the side of her that had mastered Kung Fu.

The door opened and closed. Tigress didn't really pay attention to it. It could have been a servant delivering a meal. She heard footsteps. Was that idiot prince back again?

"Tigress."

Tigress whirled around and was ready to claw the person in the face, but stopped. This man wasn't the prince, but rather the old tiger who gave her direction so long ago.

"May I speak with you?" he asked, not even flinching.

Tigress calmed herself down.

"Yes," she told him hoarsely.

The tigers sat down.

"I heard about your friends," the old tiger told her. "I understand how you feel."

"No, you don't understand!" Tigress argued. "They were killed at the same time!"

"I know. But you must understand: I am a slave. I was born a slave and most likely will die a slave. Many of my friends and family have been struck down in front of my very eyes, while I could do nothing."

Tigress looked down. She knew that the only thing worse than that would be if everyone she knew was killed at the same time.

"Tigress."

Tigress looked back up at him.

"I was relieved when I found you so many days ago. I knew you had been safe."

Tigress was puzzled.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

The old tiger gave her a weak smile and showed her the necklace he was wearing. On the end of it, although old and beaten up, was a ring identical to the ones of her own and her mother's.

"I am Li," the tiger said, "your father."

Tigress was speechless. Why hadn't she realized that before?

"What happened to our family?" she asked after a while.

Li lowered his gaze and took out the paper again.

"To tell you that, I'd have to start from before you were born," he told her. "I met your mother when we were both seventeen.

"Your mother was a village girl, and she, like the other girls in the village, often watched us work. My brother and the others never thought anything about it. Your mother and I, however, knew there was something more."

"_Mother!" Shijue cried as she burst through the door._

_Lily looked up with a surprised look._

"_Is something wrong?"_

"_Mother, it's one of the slave boys!" the girl pled. "I want to free him! Can we buy him and then release him?"_

_Lily looked at her daughter as if the girl had gone mad._

"_Shijue, I don't know if that's possible," she told her. "It may not have even been possible while your father was alive."_

"_But, Mother, we must!" Shijue insisted. "I love him!"_

"_What? Shijue! You can't!"_

"Five years later, we were setting ourselves up for disaster. No slave was to be married without its master's permission, and the marriage was only allowed between two slaves, not a slave and a villager. We longed to be married, and we couldn't wait any longer. We were secretly married, and Lily, your grandmother, was the only witness.

"No one else knew about the marriage, but I feared that it would be made public. My fears came true three months after we were married. Your mother was brought in to Huang Zu by the Polecats and I was called in. I knew we had gone too far."

_Li stepped into the throne room and bowed to his master. He stood up and froze. There, kneeling two feet in front of Huang Zu, was Shijue, still as a stone._

"_Is there something wrong, Master?" he asked, trying to act as if he wasn't worried._

_Huang Zu stood up._

"_Yes, there is," he growled._

_He motioned to have Li brought to him. The guards by the door grabbed the slave and forced him to kneel next to Shijue._

"_We've heard that you have had a relationship with this girl," Huang Zu continued._

_Li's heart skipped a beat. He looked over at Shijue. She remained very still and frightened. He looked back at Huang Zu._

"_That's just a rumor, sir," he said, trying to sound truthful._

_The tyrant glared at him._

"_Just a rumor, is it?" he growled. "Then there must be another 'rumor' going around that she holds your child!"_

_A cold chill ran down Li's spine._

"_No!" Shijue cried. "I'm -!"_

"_You do know the punishment for lying to me, don't you, Shijue?"_

_Shijue knew she was cornered. She burst into tears._

"_Yes!" she sobbed. "I'm pregnant!"_

"_And you know what must happen to you and your child," Huang Zu told her, "don't you?"_

"_No!" Li cried. "Master, please! Spare them!"_

"_Huang Zu," the tyrant's wife started, "can't we find a different punishment for them?"_

_Huang Zu turned to look at her and their sleeping infant son in her lap. He didn't understand why she had so much compassion for the slave and his family._

"_Why should I spare the scum of the earth?" he growled._

_Then he had another idea. One that would make Li wish for the first sentence._

_He turned to face the two frightened tigers._

"_Either Shijue dies tonight," he told them, "or you give the child to me as my servant."_

_The two tigers felt torn between the two decisions._

"_Please, Master!" Shijue cried. "I'll work in its place! Please don't take my baby!"_

"_Either Shijue dies tonight," Huang Zu firmly repeated, "or you give the child to me as my servant."_

_Shijue remained silent except for her crying. Li took her hand._

"_We will give you our child," he said, almost choking on his words._

_Shijue collapsed, sobbing._

"_Take them from my presence," Huang Zu told his guards, sitting back down into his throne._

"Your mother's family was devastated at the news. We knew we were defeated, but we weren't about to just hand you over. I learned that Huang Zu would give us three months after your birth to give you to him, so we made the most of it. Just before the third month was over, we went to the Valley of Peace and put our plan into motion."

_It was raining when Li and Shijue arrived at the orphanage. Shijue cradled baby Tigress in her arms and didn't want to let her go, but she knew this was the only way._

_She set the cub down on the steps. The baby was awake, her big, bright, golden eyes searching her parents' faces for what was happening._

"_Be safe, Tigress," Shijue whispered, kissing the infant's forehead._

_Li put a long golden-chain necklace on his daughter. A small ring was connected to it._

"_We need to go," Li solemnly told his wife. "They'll start wondering where we are."_

_He put his arm around her. They turned away from the infant and walked away, heartbroken._

"We left you at the orphanage and your mother took your place as Huang Zu's servant."

_Li and Shijue were almost dragged into the throne room._

"_Where is the child?" Huang Zu demanded._

_Shijue stood tall and defiant._

"_She's gone," she spoke strongly. "Do what you want with me. I don't care. Kill me or keep me as your servant. I will never say what happened to her."_

_Li stood next to his wife, unafraid of what was to come._

"_Nor will I," he boldly told his master._

"Those next four years were hard on your mother. She kept telling me how much she missed you. Then one morning, she just disappeared. I found a note she left for me telling me that she had gone to find you. I heard that Huang Zu went after her himself and when he came back, he told me she had been killed. All of these years without her have been very difficult for me, but I've somehow managed to go on."

Li handed the paper to Tigress. The image was a picture of their small family when Tigress was still an infant.

"We had this done just before we left you at the orphanage," Li told her.

Tigress gave the picture back.

"I was always worried that you wouldn't take care of me," she told her father. "But now what should I do?"

"If I had any choice in the matter," Li stated, "I would keep you from marrying Jian Kang. I know you, like your mother, will find a way around this. Your mother was the one who gave me hope, since she always had more than one option for everything. There is a problem, however. Huang Zu must never see us together. If he does, he will see the similarities between us and he will realize the truth. But let me tell you: I have a plan."

The door opened. Li quickly stood up and hid the paper and the necklace. He made his way over to the door.

"Excuse me, sir," he said.

Tigress saw the prince enter as Li left and turned away.

"What do _you_ want?" she growled.

Jian Kang checked if the door was closed.

"Honestly, I don't want to marry you," he started. "The wedding is scheduled for tonight. Tigress, I want you to help me kill my father."

* * *

Tigress looked at her reflection. She hated the gown she had to wear. She could easily trip on her skirt, and she was sure the sleeves would get in the way if she needed to fight.

_Let's hope this plan works. I could really use some lessons from Vixey now._

Rumi approached Tigress with a box.

"Jian Kang told me to give this to you," she told her. "He never told me what was in it."

Tigress took the box.

"You don't need to know," she told the servant.

Rumi bowed and left. Tigress opened the box. Inside were two daggers.

"_Hide the daggers in your sleeves," Jian Kang had said. "Dad knows you don't fight with weapons, so he won't have you checked. Secretly give me one of the daggers during the ceremony, and we will throw them at Dad."_

Tigress hid the daggers in her sleeves so the hilts were in her hands. She checked her image in the mirror. She couldn't see the daggers at all.

"Here goes," she told herself under her breath.

* * *

Tigress was led to the palace courtyard. Although it was night, everything was brightly lit. There were probably thousands of people in the audience.

Tigress joined Jian Kang in the center of the stage. Even though they had a plan, they were still hesitant to take each other's hands. Tigress let the hilt of a dagger slide into Jian Kang's hand.

"Before we begin this ceremony," Huang Zu proclaimed, "I have to say how glad I am that Tigress finally came to her senses and decided to marry my son, Jian Kang."

"We can get him when he finishes talking," Jian Kang whispered during the speech.

However, as the tyrant continued, Tigress got more agitated.

Suddenly, someone else interrupted Huang Zu. One in the thousands climbed onto a statue and aimed an arrow at the tyrant.

"THIS IS FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY FAMILY!" Li cried.

He fired his arrow. Whistling through the air, it whizzed past Tigress and Jian Kang, who had pushed each other over, and continued toward its mark.

However, Huang Zu caught the arrow and threw it at his attacker. Somehow, it flew straight and imbedded itself in Li's chest, just missing his heart.

"NO!" Tigress screamed as her father fell off the statue.

She threw her knife at Huang Zu, which missed by an inch. She ran to the fallen slave and helped him sit up. But Tigress realized her mistake too late.

She looked back at Huang Zu, who saw just what had been hiding under his nose this whole time.

"_You_ are Li and Shijue's diseased offspring?" he cried.

Tigress stood tall and bold.

"Yes, I am," she proclaimed.

"KILL HER!"


	16. Resurrection

_Chapter 16: Resurrection_

The audience immediately started running for the exits. Two servants hurried to Li to take him to safety.

Tigress ran at Huang Zu as fast as she could without stepping on her skirt. Soon, however, guards closed in around her and kept her from advancing. Several guards struck at the same time, Tigress dodging with difficulty. Another guard swung an ax at her. Tigress considered herself lucky because she tripped on her skirt at _just_ the right time, falling out of range of the weapon. She tried to dodge another ax, but it came down on the hem of her skirt, pinning her to the ground and greatly restricting her movement.

Tigress tried to pull the skirt and tear the hem, but she knew time was limited. Another ax-bearing guard raised his weapon to finish the struggling Master, and Tigress was ready to use any Kung Fu technique necessary.

Suddenly the guard jerked and fell over, landing very close to Tigress, but not injuring her. Tigress finally tore the hem of her skirt and readied to fight. Then, she saw the cause of the guard's fall: there was a small dart in his neck. Tigress turned to look at the stage.

There, standing on the very top, were Po, Viper, Monkey, Mantis, Crane, and Vixey. Immediately, relief flooded Tigress.

"You're alive!" she cried.

Then Vixey threw four darts in Tigress's direction. Tigress ducked, and the four approaching guards behind her fell over backwards. Tigress looked up at her friends, but now there was a huge cloud of white smoke where they used to be. The next thing she knew, the white smoke surrounded her and her friends were around her, fighting the guards.

"Sorry we're late!" Vixey told Tigress.

"What happened?" Tigress asked. "I thought you were dead!"

"We thought we were _going_ to die," Monkey started.

"But we were rescued at the last minute!" Viper continued.

"By who?"

"A leopard warrior," Crane answered. "I think she was following us this whole time."

"She has a whole new style of Kung Fu!" Po proclaimed.

"I bet even Master Oogway never saw anything like it!" Mantis said.

"There she is!" Vixey cried.

A figure leapt over the crowd of guards and landed on the edge of the clearing. She kicked and punched five guards and then made a motion as if she were controlling water to wash over the guards. Almost immediately, a thick vine broke through the stone on the ground and knocked away an entire row of guards.

The leopard turned to look at her friends. Tigress then realized that she recognized those blue eyes from when she and Vixey had fallen off the waterfall, just before she blacked out. She also knew that the leopard had directed the vines to tangle up the weasel thieves when they had taken the Jade Relic. The leopard had truly been there the entire time.

"Did she say what her name is?" Tigress asked.

"Well," Vixey told her, "she didn't _say_ it, but her name is Dianli. Apparently, she lives in the bamboo forest and _never_ speaks."

Dianli sent another group flying with another vine.

Tigress turned to Vixey again.

"Vixey!" she started. "How do you fight in this?"

Vixey hit another guard with her sleeve.

"Any extra clothing is a weapon!" she directed. "Think of it like a whip!"

Tigress jumped and spun, taking out two guards with the hem of her skirt.

"You're a fast learner!" Vixey remarked.

"I try to be," Tigress answered.

"Well, learn faster!" Vixey told her, spotting a large wave of guards coming their way. "You'll have to stay in that for the entire fight!"

"Are you kidding?" Tigress said. "I'd never come to a fight wearing _just_ a dress! I'm wearing my normal clothes under this!"

"Polecats!" Crane shouted.

A flood of Polecats came into the courtyard. Tui Dong saw Tigress and marched in her direction.

"I may not have been able to kill Shijue," she said to herself, "but I can rid Huang Zu of this little rat!"

She suddenly found that the Polecats around her had been tossed into the air and thrown in random directions. The culprit stopped in front of her.

"Don't you _dare_ harm my daughter."

Tui Dong laughed.

"Master Shifu," she said, "what a pleasant surprise."

"Don't toy with me, Tui Dong!" Shifu threatened. "Your next fight is with me!"

Tui Dong mockingly bowed.

"So be it!"

Both charged. Tui Dong struck and Shifu defended. Shifu struck and Tui Dong defended. Every now and then, Shifu would land a blow while Tui Dong failed on each attempt.

Four Polecats rushed Shifu, while the old Master continued to dodge them all.

"Too much for you, Master?" Tui Dong mocked.

"Calling in reinforcements is either a sign of weakness or of humility," Shifu told her.

He struck the four Polecats down, rendering them unconscious.

"I don't believe it's the latter," he continued.

The two attacked each other in a flurry of attacks. Eventually, Tui Dong hit Shifu three successive times, throwing him to the ground. She picked up his staff.

"Don't you see, Master?" she panted. "My skill defies your own. I will always win!"

Shifu stood up, not showing even the slightest sign of exhaustion.

"It's a pity you never learned Kung Fu."

He nerve-attacked her and took back his staff as she fell.

"That should wear off in about twelve hours," he told his fallen enemy, walking away.

* * *

The Masters fought their way to the stage and held their ground.

"Tigress!"

Tigress turned toward the voice. Jian Kang stood close to the palace's entrance.

"He's in the throne room!" he told Tigress.

"We'll hold the fort here!" Vixey told her friend.

Tigress ran for the palace. She was finally able to remove the dress and proceeded into the throne room. Huang Zu sat in his throne at the opposite side of the room, waiting for her.

"Well done, Tigress," he growled, "I was wondering when you would come after me."

He stood up and Tigress cautiously approached.

"You really are so much like your parents," he told her. "I don't understand why I didn't see it before. Shijue ran off and Li tried to kill me. Now you must follow in their stead by reviling against your master."

"You never were my master!" Tigress snarled.

"You are wrong, Tigress," Huang Zu proclaimed. "I was, and will always be, your master! Your parents' decisions ended in death, and so has yours!"

He revealed a dagger and made ready to throw it at Tigress, but another dagger was thrown through the air, pinning Huang Zu's sleeve to the wall and foiling his attempt. Tigress turned and saw Jian Kang in the back of the room.

"How dare you defy me!" Huang Zu shouted. "_This_ is for your insolence!"

He freed his arm and threw the dagger at something above Jian Kang. The prince looked up in time to see the rope holding a large chandelier snap. He dove for the door and just managed to avoid the crash, but the wreckage blocked him from the rest of the room. Immediately, the prince left to search for another entrance.

Tigress turned back to Huang Zu. The tyrant flew at her with claws extended. Tigress jumped away, but got a small cut on her wrist. She withdrew a short distance to keep him from attacking again. Then, she noticed that it was getting difficult to open and close her fist.

Huang Zu chuckled.

"Kung Fu is your weapon," he told her. "Poison is mine. My claws were bathed in a poison strong enough to kill even your panda friend in two direct strikes."

"I should have known you would cheat," Tigress growled.

She ran at him and placed a solid blow to the chest, throwing him backward and destroying his throne. Huang Zu jumped up angrily and charged at Tigress. Tigress did a miniature Tahlia Leap and kicked him in the chin before he could strike. Whenever Huang Zu made the attempt to claw Tigress, she struck his wrists to stop him. This effort continued for several minutes, but neither tiger showed any sign of exhaustion.

Huang Zu charged again and Tigress braced herself. She dodged his strike and tried to attack, but he dodged as well. His action - his first attempt at dodging at all - caused Tigress to fall forward and catch herself. Tigress suddenly felt Huang Zu's claws cut into her shoulder and back. She fell to the floor and tried to rise, but even that was getting harder by the second.

Huang Zu walked around her and knelt so she could see him.

"A fitting end for the one family that plagued me for so long," he told her.

He rose and raised his claw to finish her, but something else stopped him. He had felt someone claw him twice from behind. He turned as fast as he could, which was actually slow.

Jian Kang stood before him.

"Like father," he said, "like son."

Huang Zu could feel his muscles tensing up and his breathing more difficult and ragged. He fell toward Jian Kang, but the prince merely stepped to the side as his gaze followed the fallen tyrant.

"Now I can finally point this province in the right direction," Jian Kang told his father. "For once, I'm glad I'm your son. So you can teach me how _not_ to be."

He stood there for a few moments, thinking about what he should do now that he had risen to his father's throne. He almost didn't hear Tigress's friends enter the room and rush to their injured friend.

"Tigress, are you okay?" he heard Po say.

"I'll... I'll be fine."

Jian Kang could hear in Tigress's voice that she was struggling. He feared that the poison was already too much for her and she was dying. He slowly turned around and found Tigress standing there as if she were never poisoned in the first place.

"What?" he began. "But you were-!"

Tigress silenced him by showing him a spot on her wrist where a snake had bitten her.

"I am immune to Viper's venom," she told him. "For reasons unknown to us, I can be healed from any poison that runs through my veins whenever she bites me."

"It actually scared me the first time it happened," Viper whispered to Po and Vixey, who were shocked.

"If you'll excuse me," Tigress told her friends, "I have somewhere else to be."

* * *

"Right in here," Rumi said quietly.

She led Tigress into a nearby room where an injured old tiger lay. Tigress silently made her way to her father's bedside.

"Dad, are you well?" she asked. "I was told the arrow wouldn't kill you."

"No," Li told her, "but I had coated the arrow with poison. I wanted to make sure Huang Zu wouldn't harm you anymore."

"Are you in pain?"

Li let out a small, tired laugh.

"The poison is meant to make the afflicted believe they weren't poisoned at all," he said. "In fact, pain is the first to go."

He knew Tigress was depressed upon hearing the news.

"Tigress," he began, "I have to tell you. You were not a mistake. You did not come too early. You came at just the right time to free everyone, not just slaves or those in the villages, from Huang Zu."

"But I didn't kill him," Tigress told him. "Jian Kang did. I would be dead if it weren't for Viper."

"Yes," Li continued, "but you gave Jian Kang the courage to tell his father enough was enough."

He reached for his necklace and took it off with apparent difficulty.

"My time is almost over, Tigress," he said, handing the necklace to his daughter. "Take this and keep it safe."

"I will," answered Tigress.

Li took her hand.

"You look so much like your mother that I almost believed you were her," he told her. "I am proud of you, and I'm sure your mother is proud of you, as well. I'm glad Master Shifu raised you and taught you Kung Fu. I wouldn't have been able to raise you any better myself. Be safe."

The old tiger's eyes closed. Tigress felt his grip loosen on her hand. She bowed her head in respect.

Her father was gone.


	17. A New Master

_Chapter 17: A New Master_

"Thank you for letting us meet here, Mr. Ping," Shifu said.

"It really isn't a problem, Master Shifu," Mr. Ping responded. "In fact, it helps draw customers!"

Everyone sat down.

"Can I get soup for anyone?" Mr. Ping asked.

"No thanks," Jian Kang replied.

"Maybe later," Po responded.

"We'll be fine," Shifu said.

"Could I have some?" Vixey asked.

Dianli turned to look at her while the others only gave her a glance.

"What?" Vixey said. "I've never had it before!"

Dianli gave it some thought and raised her hand to order some soup as well.

"How can you stand not talking?" Vixey asked her as Mr. Ping left to get the soup. "It would drive me nuts!"

Dianli merely shrugged.

"Master Shifu," Jian Kang started, "I wanted to ask you if the Valley of Peace could enter into an alliance with the Ju Long Province."

"I have two issues with that," Shifu began. "The first is the Polecats."

"Actually, they seem to have disappeared," Jian Kang told him. "No one has seen a single Polecat since Dad's death."

"They'll be back," Tigress said.

"They might not," Vixey said suddenly. "The Polecats only work for a lot of money, and their next employer might not even want anything to do with us or the Ju Long Province."

"And the second problem?" Jian Kang asked.

"The slaves," Shifu told him.

"They've already been released and given homes," Jian Kang responded. "Some of them are even back working for an honest pay. They actually think I'm being a little too generous. In fact..."

He turned to Rumi, who was standing just behind him.

"Rumi, I'm not just doing this to make Dad turn over in his grave if he even has one, but will you marry me?"

Everyone was silent and Rumi stood there in utter surprise.

"What?" she stuttered.

"If I'm going to rule and entire province," Jian Kang told her, "I'll need a wife. Besides, we've been best friends ever since you started working at the palace."

"I... I never imagined this would happen!" Rumi spoke.

"What? Going from slave to queen?"

Rumi was silent for a few moments.

"... I... I will marry you!" she finally said.

Jian Kang stood up and embraced her while the others cheered. He spun her around a few times before finally setting her down. Then everyone heard someone clapping in the doorway of the restaurant.

"Macaque!" Vixey cried.

Macaque stepped toward the group.

"Congratulations, you two," he told the two tigers. "I'm sure you two will have a very happy time together."

He strode past them and stopped in front of Vixey.

"Hi, boss," the fox told him.

Shifu cleared his throat.

"We will have no problem making that alliance," he said.

"We appreciate it, Master," Jian Kang told him. "If you don't mind us, we'll head back home."

He, Rumi, and the five guards with them left the noodle shop.

Shifu walked over to Macaque and Vixey.

"I need to get back to work, don't I?" Vixey asked Macaque, depressed.

"What work is there to be done?"

That response shocked Vixey.

"What?" she asked.

"Don't you remember?" Macaque told her. "Since we lost three agents at once, our business is gone. We all have to find work elsewhere."

The look of astonishment on Vixey's face made it look like she had not even a fraction of any other emotion in her.

"You mean I could even stop being a detective and do something else?" she asked.

"What could you be suggesting?" Macaque asked her. "Whatever it is, you are free to do."

Immediately, Vixey jumped up and turned to Shifu.

"Master!" she yipped. "Can I please stay at the Jade Palace? I want to learn Kung Fu and be one of you guys! Please! Please!"

Her antics were like a young child begging its mother for a treat. But her request perked the attention of everyone in the restaurant.

"I can't see why not," Shifu replied.

Vixey let out an overjoyed shriek and pulled him and Macaque into a tight hug. Po and the Furious Five all stood up, but to their mistake. Vixey soon let go of Shifu and Macaque and somehow pulled the six of them into a similar hug.

"Vixey," Tigress tried to say without sounding strangled.

Vixey let them go and they all started chatting excitedly.

"It's about time you stole a student from me, old friend," Macaque told Shifu.

The red panda chuckled.

"I've been trying," he responded.

"What about you, Dianli?" Viper asked the leopard. "Will you stay with us, too?"

Dianli's pure blue eyes touched those of her new friends. She stood up and walked slowly to the entrance of the restaurant. She stopped and looked back at the nine standing there.

"Friend."

Her one word response shocked the others. They all turned to speak to each other to ask if everyone heard her speak. When they all looked back, however, Dianli was gone.

Everyone stood in silence. At least until Mr. Ping came with two bowls of soup.

"Where did that leopard girl go?" the goose squawked. "She hasn't had her soup!"

* * *

The sun descended on the Valley of Peace, its form turning the sky into a pinkish orange hue. Parents were calling in their children for dinner and neighbors were happily chatting.

High up on a cliff overlooking the Valley, at the foot of the peach tree, sat one whose golden eyes scanned everything they could see. She thought back on what had happened over the two-week span. She almost didn't notice the panda who approached her while she was deep in thought.

"You okay, Tigress?" Po asked.

Tigress gave him a small glance.

"Yeah," she finally said.

"I heard about your dad."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't."

Po paused for a few seconds.

"Do you miss him?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Tigress told him. "It's just that... he wouldn't want me mourning him."

She thought for a moment.

"Do you miss your parents?" she asked.

"Of course I do," Po replied. "But I didn't really have the chance to meet them any time recently. I guess our parents rank pretty high on the list of people who died to save others."

"Your parents more than mine," Tigress told him. "My parents didn't expect to die."

"Yeah, but your parents weren't on death row when they defied Huang Zu," Po told her. "They didn't know what he'd do to them when they told him they hid you."

"Your habit of doing this can either be helpful or very annoying," Tigress said, giving way to a weak smile.

"Ah, depends on the person," Po replied.

"There you guys are!"

Po and Tigress turned to look at Vixey. Viper, Mantis, Crane, and Monkey were right behind her.

"Are you guys okay?" Viper asked.

Tigress stood up.

"We're fine, Viper," she told her. "We just needed to talk."

"We weren't interrupting, were we?" Crane asked.

"No, you weren't," Tigress responded.

"So, Tigress," Vixey started, "since I'm going to be trained more in Kung Fu, I was wondering: could you teach me the Tahlia Leap?"

Tigress started walking toward the Jade Palace, the others following her.

"The Tahlia Leap is a very advanced Kung Fu technique that took me almost twenty years to learn," she said sternly.

Vixey stopped being so excited.

"Of course I'll teach you."

Surprise hit Vixey as if Tigress had just punched her.

"What?!" the fox asked. "Didn't you just say it took you nearly twenty years to learn?"

"I was talking about since I had started learning Kung Fu," Tigress said with a smile. "Otherwise, I perfected it a few months after I'd first learned about it."

"You were _joking_?" Vixey laughed. "You, the always serious Master Tigress?"

"I guess you and Po have started rubbing off on me," Tigress told her. "Consider yourself lucky. Po had to deal with me before I changed."

"Maybe you would have tried harder to kill me then, right?" Vixey asked.

"Shifu still would have kept me from doing so," Tigress told her. "After all, you are the best annoying little sister I never had."

Vixey gave a weak laugh.

"Annoying little sister! Ha! Ha! You're joking again!" she laughed, delivering a few playful punches to Tigress's arm before realizing how badly it hurt herself.

Shifu stood a distance away as he watched his laughing students enter the barracks without noticing him. He looked out into the darkening horizon.

"Shifu..."

The red panda quickly turned. He recognized that voice from when Tigress was still a child: the last time he had seen _her_.

"Shifu," the voice said again, "we _will_ meet again..."

Shifu turned to try to ignore the voice and found a pale, ghostly figure!

He swung his staff at the figure, which exploded into a silvery dust. Coughing, he felt like shouting at the voice, but he knew she wouldn't hear him. She was playing tricks on him, as she had done in the past. He knew she was still alive and well.

Then he thought back on Tigress's attitude toward Vixey. Perhaps learning from her would help him.

May the spirit of Master Oogway help him when _she_ decides to make a house call.

* * *

**Sorry to leave you hanging...**


	18. What's Next?

_**What's Next?**_

**Sequel: **Kung Fu Panda: Curse of the Seer

**Summary:** Second installment of the Tiger's Eye Series and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda: Unseen Eyes. Another of Tigress's secrets is made public, resulting in the arrival of four soothsayers. In the process, Tigress loses the ability to do advanced Kung Fu. It's a race against time to find the antidote, or Tigress might never be able to use Kung Fu for the rest of her life!

* * *

**Detour:** Dianli the Leopard

**Summary:** What made Dianli the silent Kung Fu warrior our heroes know today? *Note* This fanfiction is posted by me but written by my sister.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Originally, there was going to be a family of Golden Pheasants who were family friends of Li and Shijue and the messenger was going to be a normal goose.

There was also another detective agency, where all of the detectives were Raccoon Dogs. The leader of the detectives would have died with Lynx, Leopard, and Jing.

Rumi was added at the last moment so I could have Huang Zu turn over in his grave.

I had an almost completely different storyline, but it was changed because of Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Kung Fu Day Care. Originally, Li and Shijue were killed by Tai Lung instead of Tigress's foster parents and Shijue.

Originally, Huang Zu had no connection to Li and Shijue. His appearance would have just been quite random.

Ju Long means "Fear of the Dragon", Cheng Guang means "Become Light", and Rumi means "As Honey".

Dianli is actually my sister's character.

_Deleted Scene_: When Tigress and Vixey are trying to get out of Cheng Guang City and aren't quite in the gardens yet, Tigress accidentally attracts the attention of two guards and hides again. She silently tells Vixey how many there are, and, as soon as the guards turn the corner, Vixey puts darts in their necks. The girls then continue on their way after the guards pass out.

* * *

**Questions for the Viewers (**_**Please answer one or more in a review)**_**:**

_What was your favorite part in my fanfiction?_

_What was your least favorite part in my fanfiction?_

_Who is your favorite character so far?_

_Was I predictable or unpredictable?_

_What surprised you the most?_

_How soon did you realize the old tiger was Tigress's dad?_

_On a scale of 1-10 (1 being terrible, 10 being awesome), how was Vixey?_


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